It was only fitting that Mississippi State’s Teaira McCowan pulled down a rebound in the closing seconds of Monday’s game against the South Carolina Gamecocks.
McCowan was very active in the post with 20 boards and it helped the No. 2 Bulldogs defeat No. 7 South Carolina 67-53 at Humphrey Coliseum.
Despite having four fouls down the stretch, McCowan was still going after rebounds.
“That’s a kid that’s maturing and learning a little bit," MSU women's head coach Vic Schaefer said.
In the process of her special effort on Monday, McCowan set the school record for boards in a single-season with 318. The mark was previously set by Martha Alwal during the 2013-14 season.
McCowan was just short of a double-double for the Bulldogs as she scored nine points. That won’t hurt her season average much of 19.8 points per outing and she doesn’t care.
The junior from Brenham, Texas, had six offensive rebounds and was able to pass the basketball out to open teammates.
“When they are scoring, I’m going to come up with rebound and get it back to them,” McCowan said. “As long as I’m rebounding and giving them second shots, I’m cool with that.”
South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley knows McCowan can have an impact during a game and tried to come up with a plan to keep her out of the paint.
“I think we understand that Big T (McCowan) is very, very effective when she does certain things out there on the floor," Staley said. "We were just trying to take those things away and make it a more difficult
shot. (We wanted to) make her make two moves rather than her go to, drive and step and scoring deep in the paint. She did her job on the boards and got some put-backs.”
Along with her rebounds, McCowan provided three blocked shots for the Bulldogs.
With the game on the line late, it was time for McCowan to turn it up a notch.
“I had to play a little bit harder,” McCowan said. “I did my best.”