No. 3 Seed MSU Faces No. 6 New Mexico Monday Night In Second Round Action
The Lady Bulldogs will tip off at 8:23 p.m. (CT) on ESPN
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- The third-seed Mississippi State Lady Bulldogs (24-7) meet six-seed New Mexico (23-8) Monday evening in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on ESPN at 7:23 p.m. (MT). MSU defeated 14th-seed Manhattan, 73-47, in the first round and New Mexico fought off 11-seed Miami in overtime, 91-85, to advance.
This is the third time that the Lady Bulldogs have advanced to the second round. MSU is now 3-3 in overall tournament play with the win over Manhattan. The Lady 'Dogs are looking to advance to the Sweet 16 for the first time in school history.
MSU is led by senior All-American LaToya Thomas who is averaging 25.5 ppg and 8.8 rpg and sophomore guard Tan White with 18.2 ppg. The duo posted 22 points apiece in the first round win over Manhattan.
With the win over Manhattan, MSU is now 3-0 in The Pit. The Lady Bulldogs went 2-0 in 2000 with wins over California State-Northridge (75-61) and New Mexico (66-59) in the Southwest Airlines Lobo Shootout. MSU played in front of its largest crowd this year in the first round of 16,151. The Lady Bulldogs played in front of 14,650 at Tennessee, Jan. 26, 2003.
The Lady Bulldogs and Lobos have met one previous time when MSU traveled to Albuquerque in 2000 (Nov. 25) when the Lady Bulldogs won the Southwest Airlines Lobo Shootout by defeating NM, 66-49, in the championship game.
This season the two schools have shared two opponents in Memphis and Utah. Mississippi State defeated Memphis in Tennessee, 79-63, but fell to Utah, 69-65, in the Lady Griz Holiday Tournamentin Missoula, Mont. New Mexico defeated Memphis, 78-42, in the Southwest Airlines Lobo Shootout. The Lobos lost in overtime at Utah, 64-61, but defeated the Utes in The Pit, 51-48.
New Mexico (23-8) was also an automatic qualifier for the NCAA Tournament with its Mountain West Championship by defeating Colorado State, 65-51. This marks the Lobos third NCAA appearance. They are now 1-2 in NCAA Tourney play with their previous tourney appearance in 2002, losing to Notre Dame, 58-44. This is the first time in history that the Lobos have advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament, with the 91-85 overtime win over Miami. With the win, NM is riding a seven-game winning streak.
The Lobos are led by senior center Jordan Adams who averages 15.8 ppg and 6.5 rpg along with senior forward/guard Chelsea Grear who is posting 10.8 ppg and 6.6 rpg. Adams led the Lobos in the win over Miami with 27 points. Grear and sophomore guard Mandi Moore contributed 18 points each.
MSU is 2-3 versus the Mountain West Conference. New Mexico is 0-6 overall versus the Southeastern Conference (Arkansas, Florida, Auburn, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi State).