Heart and tenacity are good. Defense is even better. Connecticut had to work for every point it scored. Williams, in particular, forced to show off just how athletically superior she is in carving points out of nothing on drives and pull-ups.
“We didn’t want them to play pretty ball,” Dillingham said. “They average 25 assists a game. We wanted them to put it on the ground. We wanted them to create for themselves. We didn’t want them passing the ball around. We want to deny the floor.”
They still got assists on half their field goals, but they only made 20 field goals. It was strange to see, but Connecticut was the team forced to improvise and play one-on-one basketball, while Mississippi State moved the ball with relative comfort around the perimeter.
“We deny one pass away,” explained Bulldogs assistant Carly Thibault of the technique behind Dillingham’s edict. “We deny the floor. We don’t let them get into the flow of their offense. They can’t just turn the ball, swing the ball and get ball movement that way. If you’re going to turn the ball, you’ve got to put the ball on the floor to do that because we’re going to deny one pass away.”
The game was played the way they wanted it to be played. When Connecticut finally made it back from that 16-point deficit and took the lead at 41-40, William hit a layup to answer. There was to be no wave from Connecticut, just the tide ebbing and flowing this way and that.
“We knew they were going to make a run; they’re a team full of runs,” Dillingham said. “I think we just couldn’t get on our heels – we never got on our heels. We just kept being aggressive.”
A lot of people say that about Connecticut. Few lived it out during a streak short on close calls.
Vivians scoffed when asked if Mississippi State could have played this game without the experience of the game a year ago. Of course these Bulldogs could still have pulled this off. That was not a consensus opinion.
“I wish we didn’t have it,” Breanna Richardson said. “But at the same time, it gave us motivation.”
Women’s basketball has been waiting for teams to respond to the challenge thrown down by Connecticut. What’s best for the sport isn’t that one program get worse but that the rest get better. For one night, the basketball court in Dallas offered a condensed view of that process. Mississippi State saw the standard a year ago. It met the standard Friday night.
“I feel like everything happens for a reason,” Dillingham said. “We lose by 60 last year, we go into the offseason with a mentality that we’re not satisfied. In order to beat a team like UConn, we have to be perfect, work on things every day — rebounding, boxing out. We have to be good at them.”
They had to stand up to Connecticut.
Coach Vic Schaefer appeared in danger of drawing a technical foul when referees informed both coaches of the decision to assess the flagrant foul after video review in the final minute of overtime. He stomped his feet and used some succinctly choice words to express his opinion until first director of operations Maryann Baker and then daughter Blair steered him to the huddle.
At least according to one of those in the middle of it, the message was short on Xs and Os.
“We’ve got to face adversity, like we’ve faced all year,” Richardson said of Schaefer’s instructions in that timeout. “Don’t let them take it from us. Let’s go get it.”
A Connecticut pass slipped away from Saniya Chong on the ensuing possession. And after an additional 30-second timeout, William let loose the shot that floated up and over Williams and down through the net. Followed by a roar.
“I don’t even think that was all our fans,” Richardson said. “I feel like the whole place was just excited about the moment.”
It was a moment that was a long time coming, a worthy record holder beaten by a worthy foe.
Article Appeared @http://www.espn.com/womens-college-basketball/story/_/id/19048282/women-final-four-mississippi-state-bulldogs-stand-connecticut-huskies-epic-upset