Video: Mississippi State Ready for Elite Eight Showdown versus No. 1 Baylor

March 25, 2017

STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI/MSU Athletics) – For the first time in program history, Mississippi State will play for a trip to the Final Four.

The No. 2 seed Bulldogs face top-seeded Baylor Sunday night in the Elite Eight for the opportunity to hoist the Oklahoma City region championship and advance to next weekend’s Final Four in Dallas, Texas.

Tip from Chesapeake Energy Arena is set for 6:30 p.m. on ESPN. WKBB-FM 100.9 will have the radio call in the Golden Triangle, while WCNA-FM 95.9 will air the game in the Tupelo area.

Tickets can be purchased at www.ticketmaster.com.

Live audio will be streamed on www.hailstate.com/plus, and the game will be carried nationally via NCAA Radio on Westwood One.

Vic Schaefer‘s squad claimed its first Elite Eight appearance with a 75-64 win against third-seeded Washington in Friday’s region semifinal.

That victory added yet another accomplishment to a record-setting season that has seen MSU claim a program-best 32-4 overall record.

The Bulldogs were paced in Friday’s win by sophomore Teaira McCowan, who recorded a double-double with a career-best 26 points, 12 rebounds and a personal-high six blocks. The Brenham, Texas, native scored 20 of her points in the fourth quarter.

Junior Victoria Vivians also added double figures with 13 points, while Blair Schaefer continued her stellar play in the NCAA Tournament with 10 points.

Baylor enters Sunday’s matchup 33-3 after defeating Louisville 97-63 on Friday at The Peak.

BULLDOGS VS. BAYLOR

Sunday will be the first NCAA Tournament meeting between Mississippi State and Baylor. It will be the fifth time the teams have faced off, the first since 2004.
The Bears have won the last three meetings. The only postseason meeting came in the 1998 WNIT, a game Baylor won at home 75-65.

QUOTABLE
“It’s a great day to be a Bulldog. We are really excited about the opportunity in front of us tomorrow. Again, I’m awfully proud of my team. Just to rehash, Washington is a good, well-coached team, and it was a tremendous victory for us. I was proud of our second and fourth quarters. I thought those were big for us. I thought our conditioning, just our physical presence, really took over.

“Looking ahead to Baylor, obviously they are an extremely talented, well-coached basketball team. I’ve known Coach (Kim) Mulkey a long time. I’ve had a little bit of experience dealing with her teams, and this team is no different. They are big, strong, physical.”
— MSU Head Coach Vic Schaefer

ABOUT THE BEARS

Baylor advanced to the Elite 8 for the fourth-consecutive season with a 97-63 win against Louisville in Friday’s second Oklahoma City semifinal.
The Bears, the top seed in the region, knocked off California 86-46 in the second round after opening the tournament with a 119-30 win against Texas Southern.
Baylor has four players that average double figures, led by Kalani Brown’s 15.1 ppg. Alexis Jones averages 13.1 ppg while Nina Davis and Alexis Prince score at 12.8 and 12.2 clips, respectively.
Brown also tops the Bears on the boards with 8.2 rpg.

NEXT UP

The winner of Sunday’s game will advance to the Final Four in Dallas.

BULLDOG BITES

Sunday’s game will be Mississippi State’s first appearance in the NCAA Elite Eight.
The Bulldogs earned their inaugural Elite Eight appearance with a 75-64 win against Washington on Friday in the Oklahoma City region semifinal.
This is the Bulldogs’ ninth NCAA Tournament appearance. MSU is 12-8 all-time in the event.
State is a program-best No. 2 seed. It will face top-seeded Baylor. The OKC region is the only region that had that had the Top 4 seeds advance to the Sweet 16.
Friday’s win was MSU’s program-best 32nd of the season. MSU has set the single-season wins record each of the last three seasons (27 – 2014-15; 28 – 2015-16; 32 – 2016-17).
Seniors Ketara Chapel, Dominique Dillingham, Breanna Richardson and Chinwe Okorie are the winningest class in program history, putting together an SEC second-best 109-33 (.768) career record.
Vic Schaefer is one of four finalists for Naismith Coach of the Year. He was also named a regional coach of the year by the WBCA.
MSU is averaging 92.3 ppg in the NCAA Tournament.
State is holding NCAA Tournament foes to 68.0 ppg. It held Washington to its fewest points in a game since it scored 60 against Notre Dame on Nov. 20.
This year’s squad set the school single-season scoring record with 2,746 points. Four of the top five scoring marks in program history have come during Schaefer’s tenure.
State is shooting 44.5% from the field in the NCAA Tournament. MSU is shooting 45% for the year, tied for the fourth-best percentage in school history.
This year’s squad is the first in program annals to make 1,000 field goals in a season (1,003).
MSU held Washington to 38.7% from the field, its lowest percentage since Jan. 29.
Sophomore Teaira McCowan scored a career-best 26 points in Friday’s win against Baylor. She also recorded her third double-digit rebounding game in the last four contests.
McCowan is averaging 14.3 points, 11.3 rebounds and 3.3 blocks in this season’s NCAA Tournament.
McCowan tied an MSU NCAA Tournament school record with six blocked shots and 12 made field goals in Friday’s victory.
State matched a program NCAA Tournament best with nine blocked shots against the Huskies.
Junior Morgan William dished six assists on Friday, giving her 463 for her career. That total tied Angela Harris (1997-00) for the most in MSU history.
Junior Blair Schaefer notched her third-straight game in double figures as she tallied 10 points against Washington. Schaefer is averaging 16.3 ppg in the NCAA Tournament.
Victoria Vivians was named WBCA All-America region finalist. She had 13 points on Friday.