BANGOR, Maine — Mississippi State junior Victoria Vivians was an All-Southeastern Conference first-teamer and an honorable mention All-American a year ago.
The 6-foot-1 guard showed why on Saturday night.
The Carthage, Mississippi, native scored all of her game-high 26 points in the first half, hitting nine of her 16 shots and capping the half with her fourth 3-pointer as 10th-ranked Mississippi State posted an impressive 87-43 win over the freshman-laden University of Maine in the Tip-Off Tournament championship game at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor.
Mississippi State improved to 2-0 and UMaine fell to 1-1 and had its 20-game home winning streak snapped.
Roshunda Johnson came off the bench to score 14 second-half points thanks to 4-for-4 shooting from the 3-point arc, and quick, 5-5 point guard Morgan William had seven points, nine assists and five steals.
Six-foot-7 sophomore center Teaira McCowan contributed eight points and a game-high seven rebounds. Breanna Richardson had six points, four rebounds and two assists, and Dominique Dillingham had seven points.
Freshmen Laia Sole and Naira Caceres scored eight points each for UMaine, and Koizar and Julie Brosseau had seven each. Sole also had four rebounds and two assists, and Koizar had three assists and two steals.
Mississippi State outrebounded UMaine 36-23 and forced 26 turnovers, while the Bulldogs had 15 turnovers.
“Obviously, our team is pretty quick and athletic and our press can really wear teams down,” Mississippi State coach Val Schaefer said. “That was a big factor. We made them run their offense pretty far out.
“That’s what we do. We try to make you uncomfortable and we did a really good job of that. Maine is really good. They’re going to have a heck of a year. They’ve obviously very young but they’re really talented. Richard is a heck of a coach.”
Mississippi State closed out the first half with a 21-3 spurt that supplied it with a comfortable 46-23 lead at the intermission.
After spotting the Bulldogs the game’s first 15 points, UMaine used a 20-10 spurt spanning the first and second quarters to pull within 25-20 with 5:45 left in the half.
But then Vivians took over, getting a favorable bounce on a 3-pointer to trigger the decisive 21-3 run.
The Southeastern Conference’s top returning scorer had 15 of the 21 points as she connected on three 3’s, including a 30-footer at the buzzer, along with two midrange jumpers and a pair of free throws.
She scored nine consecutive points in one stretch.
Vivians had scored four points while playing only 10 minutes of Friday’s 108-62 victory over Villanova.
“I didn’t play much yesterday so coming out fresh and playing a good team really had me energized and ready to play,” said Vivians, who was chosen the tournament’s Most Valuable Player.
“She’s a [Women’s National Basketball Association] lottery pick,” UMaine coach Richard Barron said. “She didn’t come all the way from Starkville, Mississippi, to Maine to score four points. When we cut it to five, she took over. She outscored us 26 to 23 in the first half.”
William dished out all of her nine assists and five steals in the first half as the tenacious Bulldogs forced 18 first-half turnovers.
UMaine’s first four possessions resulted in turnovers.
The Bulldogs contested every pass with a stifling full-court press, featuring William at the point. She also also did an excellent job guarding two-time All-America East first team guard Koizar, who picked up three fouls in the first half.
“Coach [Vic Schaefer] told me I set the tone,” William said. “On defense, I knew their point guard [Koizar] was their heart and soul, so if I wear her down and get her in foul trouble, her team will get out of whack. I felt if I did that, my teammates would follow behind me and we’d start off strong.”
“She’s a great on-ball defender,” Koizar said. “Even though she’s very short, she makes up for it with her quickness.”
Mississippi State, which reached the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament last season, further distanced itself by outscoring Maine 17-7 in the third quarter.
“First of all, you see why they’re the No. 10 team in the country,” Barron said. “They’re very well coached and they have a style and a system that makes them very hard to play against. They certainly imposed their will on us. Their style won out today. Part of that was their experience level. They had everybody returning and that made a real difference.
“We had a 10-minute stretch where we outscored them 20-10. We moved the ball around. We saw what we could do,” Barron said.
“The other 30 minutes they completely tore us apart,” Barron said.’
UMaine visits Harvard at 6 p.m. Tuesday.
Koizar and Sole made the all tourney team along with Mississippi State’s Johnson and MVP Vivians, Purdue’s Dominique Oden and Villanova’s Adrianna Hahn.
Villanova beat Purdue 58-44 to finish third.