OKLAHOMA CITY -- Morgan William was upset with herself after Mississippi State lost the SEC tournament final to South Carolina on March 5. A point guard, she prides herself on taking care of the ball. She had seven turnovers against the Gamecocks, and it weighed on her.
Who knew she would have the game of her life 21 days later? But she did, and it carried Mississippi State to its first women's Final Four. The No. 2 seed Bulldogs beat No. 1 Baylor 94-85 in overtime of the Oklahoma City Regional final. William led the way with a career-high 41 points in 40 minutes. She also had seven assists and no turnovers.
"Our point guard was as good as they get today," Mississippi State coach Vic Schaefer said. "She put us on her back."
Teaira McCowan did the same on Friday in Mississippi State's Sweet 16 victory over Washington, as the 6-foot-7 sophomore had 26 points, 12 rebounds and six blocks. McCowan is the tallest Mississippi State player, but on Sunday, the smallest Bulldog took over.
William is listed at 5-foot-5, but even she admits that's exaggerating her height. But her play on Sunday was proof that, yes, there is still room at the top of women's college basketball for "little" guards.
William, a junior, averaged 10.1 points per game this season prior to Sunday. And in the Bulldogs' first three NCAA tournament games, she had scored a combined 11 points and shot just 25 percent from the field.
Yet her performance in the regional final was unforgettable. The game was almost three years to the day that her stepfather and mentor, Donnie Rory, died. She said she didn't focus on that, but it was in the back of her mind.
William, who went to Shades Valley High School in Birmingham, Alabama, said that she knew many people underestimated her chances to be competitive at Division I because of her size. But Rory had always believed in her. A former college football player, he helped her work on her game.
"He's the reason I'm where I am today in basketball," William said. "He still motivates me. I just wish he was here to see it."
Those in attendance at Chesapeake Energy Arena and watching on television saw the best individual performance so far of this women's NCAA tournament and perhaps the best overall game. Stanford defeated Notre Dame 76-75 in a nail-biter in Sunday's other regional final in Lexington, Kentucky. That was quite a contest, but the nightcap in OKC was fantastic too.
"I thought our kids were unflappable," Schaefer said. "I thought they were resilient. They played with a tremendous amount of poise."
Meanwhile, Baylor suffered Elite Eight heartbreak for the fourth year in a row, and for the second time during that stretch, the Lady Bears lost here in Oklahoma City. In 2014, they were defeated in the regional final at Notre Dame, then the Irish beat them in OKC in 2015. Last season in Dallas, they lost in the regional final to Oregon State.
It was also here in OKC that the Lady Bears fell in an incredibly painful Sweet 16 game to Louisville in 2013. One couldn't blame Baylor coach Kim Mulkey if she would just as soon never play an NCAA tournament game in Oklahoma's capital city again. The arena seems almost haunted for Baylor; the Lady Bears also lost the Big 12 championship game here on March 6.
That loss, though, was one Baylor probably didn't feel too badly about; the Lady Bears ran into a red-hot West Virginia team. Then Baylor regrouped and dominated its first three NCAA tournament games, crushing Texas Southern, Cal and Louisville. Mulkey thought her team was on a roll.
However, so was Mississippi State. The Bulldogs had changed their lineup for their first three NCAA games, with only William remaining from the usual starting five. On Sunday, though, Schaefer switched things up again; he brought back starters Victoria Vivians, Dominique Dillingham and Breanna Richardson to join William and McCowan.
Vivians, the Bulldogs' leading scorer this season, had struggled to a degree in the six games before the regional final. Then on Sunday, she came up huge with 24 points, six rebounds and six assists. Vivians played all 45 minutes, as did Baylor's Kalani Brown, who led the Lady Bears with 27 points and nine rebounds.
The keys to the game -- other than the offensive explosion from William and Vivians -- were the Lady Bears' turnovers (17 to Mississippi State's four) and inability to get the ball into the post even more than they did. Brown and Nina Davis -- who finished her Baylor career on Sunday with 18 points -- were a combined 18 of 24 from the field.
Baylor had a chance to win the game in regulation, with the scored tied at 75 and possession of the ball. But guard Alexis Jones missed a shot. Baylor got the rebound with 3.4 seconds left, and both teams used timeouts to set up strategy. But Baylor wasn't able to get a good pass into Brown, and it resulted in another turnover, sending the game to overtime.
"Credit Mississippi State's defense for creating turnovers," Mulkey said. "It was ridiculous. We have [Lauren] Cox, Beatrice [Mompremier] and Kalani back. They're as good as any bigs in the country. But we have to fix, I guess you'd say, point guard play."
Mulkey was particularly disappointed for her seniors, saying, "They've kept us at an elite level, [but] they really are Final Four-type kids. This was a Final Four-type team. But we just didn't get it done today."
Mulkey also complimented Schaefer and said she wished him and the Bulldogs well as they move on. He was an assistant to Gary Blair at Texas A&M in 2011, when the Aggies beat Baylor in the Elite Eight on the way to a national championship. Schaefer then took over at Mississippi State for the 2012-13 season, and in his fifth year, he has the program in the Final Four.
"What it takes to get to this level this quick is a tremendous commitment from your administration," Schaefer said. "We knew what 13-17 looked like that first season. We didn't panic."
The Bulldogs progressed steadily, going 22-14 and making the WNIT in Schaefer's second season. In the third year, they were 27-7 and lost in the NCAA second round at Duke. Last season, they were 28-8 and met UConn in the Sweet 16, where they got clobbered 98-38 by the eventual national champion. But if they get another chance at UConn -- which faces Oregon in the Bridgeport Regional final on Monday (ESPN/WatchESPN, 9:05 p.m. ET) -- the Bulldogs hope to put on a better show.
But they'll worry about that a little later. Sunday was time to celebrate: They are 33-4 and headed to the national semifinals.
"It's amazing; I'm glad we could do this for Starkville," William said. "There's so much support there, and now we're taking it to Dallas."