N.C. State, Mississippi State ready to meet (Mar 21, 2018)
The Mississippi State women's basketball team is starting to make a habit of this.
The Bulldogs, the top seed in the Kansas City Region, will face No. 4 North Carolina State on Friday in its third straight trip to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Women's Tournament. They had made it that far only once prior to 2016.
Mississippi State (34-1) advanced with a 71-56 home-court win over Oklahoma State on Monday.
"What a blessing from the Lord for our four seniors to go out that way on that stage in their last home game," Bulldogs coach Vic Schaefer said, according to Mississippi Today, after the win in front of 9,881 in Starkville, Miss.. "They are special. They've changed me as a coach and as a person. This entire team is special."
Schaefer got the typical big effort from one of those seniors.
Victoria Vivians led the Bulldogs with 23 points, six rebounds and four assists and left Cowgirls coach Jim Littell with an answer.
"We don't have a matchup for Vivians," he said. "When you can score at three different levels, it's just so hard to defend. She can finish at the basket, she's got a good intermediate game and she can shoot the 3-pointer. That's just hard to defend.
"We got beat by a very, very good team. They are extremely well-coached and have two first-round WNBA draft picks."
Mississippi State and N.C. State depend largely on their starters.
The Bulldogs got zero points and only garbage-time minutes in the win over Oklahoma State. The Wolfpack gets 61.3 of its 67 points per game from different players who all average 23 minutes.
North Carolina State (26-8) had only eight bench points in its 74-60 second-round win over fifth-seeded Maryland on Monday.
The Wolfpack's Kiara Leslie, a Maryland graduate, had 21 points and 11 rebounds against her alma mater.
The Wolfpack is making its first trip to the Sweet 16 since its late Hall of Fame coach Kay Yow took the team in 2007 after returning from a fight with cancer. Yow died of breast cancer in 2009 after leading the Wolf Pack to the Sweet 16 11 times.
"(Yow) battled cancer for 20 years and she kept coming back. That's what they've done, just the way they keep fighting," coach Wes Moore said, according to the (Raleigh, N.C.) News & Observer. "Think back to the Louisville game: we were down 26-1 to start the game, how 'bout that? You feel like you're out there in your underwear in front of 3,000 people. Next thing you know it's a four-point game with three minutes left and we got the ball. We had a chance. That's the way they are. They ignore the noise and keep coming."
The winner will face No. 2 Texas or No. 3 UCLA on Sunday in Kansas City.
