Louisville vs. Mississippi State live results: Bulldogs win in OT, advance to championship game

Louisville simply ran out of gas, going scoreless for the first four minutes of overtime, and Mississippi State proved too much down the stretch in advancing to their second consecutive national title game.

Victoria Vivians scored the first five points of overtime before fouling out in the final minute, and finished with a game-high 25 points for Mississippi State. All-American center Teaira Mccowan finished with 21 points, 25 rebounds and three blocks in the win, and through five games already owns an NCAA Tournament record with 92 rebounds. It was her second consecutive 20-20 game and fifth of the season.

Asia Durr was a handful and led Louisville with 18 points, including 12 after halftime, but MSU was able to keep her in check somewhat with 6-for-17 shooting.

The Wildcats scored three straight buckets in the final two minutes to retake the lead, and amid the chaos of Mississippi State trying to foul Myisha Hines-Allen broke free and made a wild reverse layup for a three-point advantage.

But that was nullified by Roshunda Johnson of MSU nailing a three with seven seconds left to tie things up and earn an extra period.

A furious charge by Mississippi State vaulted them into the lead, then up by a point Teaira Mccowan drew a foul on a rebound attempt. Louisville’s Sam Fuerhing fouled out on the play but also got charged with a crucial technical foul for slapping the floor in frustration at the call. Morgan William hit both free throws to give the Bulldogs a three-point advantage.

Asia Durr scored eight in the third quarter including a pair of threes in the final minute of the quarter. She has 14 on the night, including this buzzer beater at the end of the third.

Teaira Mccowan had six points and four rebounds in the quarter to keep MSU close.

Mississippi State takes the lead going into the half on a beautiful back door play. Louisville had been denying hard on all passes in the first half, so Mississippi State made them pay with a back cut. Vivians still leads all scorers with 11 points while they’ve been able to limit Louisville’s Asia Durr to only six points in the first half.

The jitters have worn off for Victoria Vivians as she now leads all scorers with 9 points but Mississippi State still trails Louisville by three late in the second quarter.

It’s been an extremely tough defensive battle to start this game but late in the quarter Mississippi State’s Victoria Vivians finally got going late in the quarter with this pretty behind-the-back move to the basket.

Asia Durr gets things going with a four-point play!

For the fourth time in the NCAA women’s basketball tournament, all four No. 1 seeds are in the Final Four. The first of two national semifinals features Mississippi State and Louisville facing off (7 p.m. ET, ESPN) Friday night at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio.

Mississippi State was the giant slayer last year in the Final Four, upsetting undefeated UConn on a last-second shot by Morgan William to snap the Huskies’ 111-game win streak. William is one of three starters from last year’s team returning this year, along with fellow guard Victoria Vivians and 6’7 center Teaira McCowan, the latter averaging 18 points and 13.6 rebounds this season.

After falling in the championship game to South Carolina last year, the Bulldogs are 36-1 this season, with their only loss coming in the SEC tournament final, also to the Gamecocks.

“They’ve lived all year with a bull’s eye on their backs. That’s hard to do, y’all,” Mississippi State coach Vic Schaefer told the Associated Press. “These kids are special.”

Louisville (36-2) only has two losses to their ledger, and has romped through the NCAA women’s tournament with an average margin of victory of 27.5 points. Louisville’s closest game in this tournament was an 18-point win over Marquette in the second round.

Cardinals junior guard Asia Durr leads the team in scoring at 18.7 points per game while shooting 41 percent from three-point range. She was named a first-team All-American earlier in the week.