March Madness Begins Friday As Bulldogs Face Tulane In Durham
STARKVILLE, Miss. – March Madness finally begins for Mississippi State Friday as the Bulldogs travel to Durham, N.C., for the opening rounds of the 2015 NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship.
As the No. 5 seed in the Spokane Regional, MSU will face 12th-seeded Tulane at legendary Cameron Indoor Stadium. The contest is set for a 1:30 p.m. CT tip on ESPN2.
Friday’s game will also be carried in the Golden Triangle area on WKBB-FM 100.9 and WXWX-FM 96.3 in Tupelo.
Fans in the Starkville area unable to make the trek to Durham can join other Bulldogs at the Dawg House Sports Grill for a watch party hosted by the women’s basketball booster club.
The winner of Friday’s contest will advance to play the winner of the day’s first matchup in the Durham bracket between fourth-seeded Duke and 13th-seeded Albany (N.Y.).
Mississippi State (26-6, 11-5) makes its seventh NCAA Tournament appearance and its first since reaching the Sweet 16 in 2010. The Bulldogs are 6-6 all-time in the “Big Dance” and have not lost their tourney opener since 1999, winning five-consecutive NCAA Tournament lid-lifters.
Southeastern Conference Coach of the Year Vic Schaefer led the Maroon and White to school records for overall and conference victories while matching the best SEC finish in program history with a third-place showing.
Schaefer’s Bulldogs are led by freshman standout Victoria Vivians, who enters the NCAA Tournament as the SEC’s leading scorer with 15.1 points per game. The Carthage, Miss. native tallied second team All-SEC honors and was awarded the Gillom Trophy as Mississippi’s top female college basketball player.
Vivians enters the NCAA Tournament on a hot streak, having scored in double figures in 10 of the last 11 games and averaging 18.8 points over her last six games.
Senior Martha Alwal, a second team All-SEC selection, is coming off her 35th-career double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds against Kentucky in the SEC Tournament.
Alwal, who became the second Bulldog to pass the 1,000-career rebound mark, has also been stellar down the stretch for MSU, averaging 13.6 points, 8.1 rebounds and 2.3 blocks her last 11 games.
Tulane (22-10, 11-7) is also making its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2010. It is dancing for the 11th time in school history after finishing sixth in the American Athletic Conference and advancing to the American Conference Tournament semifinals.
Kolby Morgan leads the Green Wave in the scoring column with 11.7 points a game, while Tiffany Dale leads Tulane on the boards with 6.9 rebounds per contest.
The schools are meeting in the postseason for the second-straight year after the Bulldogs claimed a 77-68 win at Humphrey Coliseum in the opening round of last season’s WNIT.
The all-time series between the teams is tied at five wins apiece, while MSU is 2-0 in postseason games.
The second round matchup in Durham will be played on Sunday at 11 a.m. CT.