Lady Cougars clinch 9th MCC Tournament title
The Knights, playing their third straight road game in the tournament, their fourth straight including their final regular season game, finished 19-14 playing in their first MCC Tournament Championship game. MU, the No. 5 seed for the tournament, won at No. 4 Taylor 64-50, then shocked the MCC world winning at top-seeded Indiana Wesleyan 76-55 Friday night. The Knights had to win to advance to the 19th annual State Farm-NAIA Division II women's Basketball National Championship Tournament in Sioux City, Iowa, starting Wed., March 10.
"I played terrible and knew I had to step up big in the second half," Mullins said looking back at a two-point first half. "We've got a great team with a number of players capable of doin' what I did. My teammates got me the ball, I was in the right place at the right time for a big steal, score and foul, and we just wore 'em down. We've got a number of players on this team that could start on a lot of other teams and we just wear teams down."
Mullins, several of her teammates and USF coach Gary Andrews declared it was defense that made the difference.
"We made some stops, then executed on the offensive end," Seiss said.
"We rebounded much better in the second half, too," Andrews pointed out. "We held (Rachel) Kenney scoreless and that was huge. She score 19 against Indiana Wesleyan," and came into the game averaging 10.9 a game while shooting .548. On Monday night she went 0-for-3 and eventually fouled out.
Megan Egenolf led MU with 23 points. Emily Smithson had 12 and Rachel Turk 11.
