MSU Wins First SEC Women’s Basketball Tournament

GREENVILLE, S.C. (WCBI) – Vic Schaefer’s dream came true.

At the sound of the final buzzer Sunday, it was his Mississippi State Bulldogs team that was showered in the confetti. The first time in program history MSU is named SEC Women’s basketball tournament champions.

The Bulldogs capping off a dominant week in Greenville with it’s best performance saved for last cruising past Arkansas, 101-70.

“We played hard today,” Jazzmun Holmes said. “We played with poise, and we played together and we came out with the victory, and that’s what we get.”

“We get to stay out in the confetti, play around, take pictures. Celebrate that moment. The other times we’re going to the locker room trying to figure out what we could have done and or what we didn’t do. So I mean, it was a good feeling being out there on the court, with the confetti falling,” SEC Tournament MVP Teaira McCowan said.

“It’s about them, it’s about those kids,” head coach Vic Schaefer said. “Nobody knows how hard our kids work except me and my staff, and to see the fruits of their labor come to fruition, as a coach, that’s why you do what you do.”

The Bulldogs were explosive from the jump, shooting a blistering 63% from the field, and 67% from three, draining 12 of 18.

Teaira McCowan and Jazzmun Holmes starred, but big supporting performances from Bre’Amber Scott and Andra Espinonza-Hunter showed how good this team can be when clicking on all cylinders.

“It is a different team, but that doesn’t mean we’re not as good or better. I think it’s still out there if we can be better, and that’s what I’ve said all year, that’s my challenge is, I think the upside of this team is still off the chart,” Schaefer said.

Now the SEC champions’ attention will turn to the NCAA Tournament: the next part of this story that includes unfinished business

It remains to be seen if the Bulldogs will receive a top four seeding, or where in the country they’ll be placed but for Schaefer, none of that matter.

“We’ll go wherever they send us. I’m not trading my team for anybody else’s. I’m taking this group, and we’ll go play. I don’t care who it is or where, I could care less. I think these kids will feel the same way,” Schaefer said.

“We can do anything we can put our minds to. This team is different than last year, and the years before. I just feel like if we play together, and execute the gameplan, and do what he says, I mean, he’s done it before. Today was proved we can do whatever we put our minds to,” Holmes said.

The Bulldogs will have to wait until March 18th to plan its course back to the Final Four, but until then, HailState Hoops can enjoy yet another program-first. Another one off the checklist.