With its 57-55 victory over Purdue on Sunday, the MSU women’s basketball team locked itself into the No. 2 seed in the Big Ten Tournament and gave itself a solid chance at getting into the NCAA Tournament to play as many as two more games at Breslin Center.
The win was a much-needed boost in confidence for the Spartans. Having lost their starting point guard, sophomore Brittney Thomas, for the season, the team was lacking direction on offense and was exposed in its two previous games, losses to Wisconsin and Minnesota. The Spartans couldn’t handle a press and looked like they had given up in the 66-51 loss to the Golden Gophers.
Sunday, they looked different. The team came out of the locker room with a steely look in their eyes, more focused and determined than before. Previously, the Spartans had a tendency to look lost without a true point guard, throwing passes where people should be rather than keeping their heads up and passing to where the player actually was.
The team still turned the ball over 20 times, something it hasn’t been able to get over, even when Thomas was in the lineup. But there was a focus on the court that wasn’t in the two games prior.
Head coach Suzy Merchant sat down with the team after Thursday’s loss and laid out what was at stake if the team didn’t change its ways, senior guard Mia Johnson said.
“Everybody kind of walked in the locker room, heads down looking defeated,” Johnson said. “Coach Merchant, she just started jotting everything off, like where we’re at, where we could be if we did win (against Purdue). (She) gave us just a little more input and things that we needed.”
The team also got a boost from a switch in the starting lineup, inserting sophomore forward Cetera Washington as a starter to bolster the team defense and get a little extra fire on the court.
“Cetera has been giving us great minutes defensively,” Merchant said. “I felt like that’s where our bread and butter’s been so let’s start her. The other thing is it gives you a veteran group out there. I felt like we needed that. We needed people out there that understand the implications of the tip and what this game meant.”
The game against Purdue felt like a tournament game, and with MSU hosting the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament, it could resemble the atmosphere it will be playing in a few weeks. It also held huge implications. Had MSU lost, it would only be a No. 5 seed in the Big Ten Tournament and would be playing against Minnesota, a team that beat the Spartans handily twice.
Now with a presumably solid footing in the NCAA Tournament, having earned 20 wins and gotten key victories over Ohio State and Purdue, the team looked noticeably relieved after the game. The same couldn’t be said last year, when the team was left out of the Big Dance, only to advance to the WNIT championship game.
“That’s a huge weight lifted off our shoulders,” sophomore forward Kalisha Keane said.
Support student media!
Please consider donating to The State News and help fund the future of journalism.
Discussion
Share and discuss “Team fought back to earn No. 2 seed” on social media.
