In the world of women’s college basketball, Arkansas’ Chelsea Dungee is moving up the ladder as one of the better players.
She’s climbing it fast.
When the Razorbacks opened in the Women’s National Invitational Tournament on Thursday night in front of a raucous crowd announced at 3,689 that sounded like 10,000 at times, Dungee was the headliner in an 88-80 overtime win.
Scoring 37 points tends to make you the headliner, despite some key help from seniors Kiara Williams (15 points, 8 rebounds, 5 blocked shots) and Malica Monk (13 points, 4 rebounds, 2 steals and 2 assists), Jailyn Mason (8 points) and Alexis Tolefree (8 points).
But, still, it keeps coming back to Dungee, who played all but one of the 45 minutes in a game where the Hogs rallied in the fourth quarter and held off a messed-up final shot in regulation and ran away with it in overtime.
Dungee has scored 20-plus for the 19th time and 30-plus for the sixth time this year. It is her 32nd game in double figures. It is her third 30-plus point game in the last five contests.
She does it more in crunch time than the first quarter.
“She’s just a killer,” Hogs coach Mike Neighbors said. “She’s got that killer gene. There’s a lot of big-time scorers that don’t have the killer gene. She’s got that ‘get-me-the-ball,’ that Jimmy Chitwood gene, or whoever.”
Houston coach Ronald Hughey probably described the nightmare she poses for opponents best.
“We called her a three-level scorer with four-point range,” he said smile. “She can go right, finish at the rim with a pull-up at 15 feet. She can go left, finish at the rim with a pull-up at 15 feet. She can shoot it at the regular 3-point line, she can shoot it four feet behind the 3-point line.
“It’s extremely difficult because she can create space for her shot. She can get into you and be able to get a stepback and she’s long enough at 6-1 to shoot over the top of the defense. So I saw why the SEC, watching all those games, had trouble with her.”
When she decided to leave Oklahoma after the 2016-17 season, Neighbors talked her into transferring to Arkansas. She had other big-time options. If you’re looking for a clue into what makes Neighbors one of the best recruiters, she’s the first for the Hogs … but not the last.
Having Dungee means Neighbors doesn’t have to spend a lot of time dreaming up plays.
“That makes you sleep good at night when you don’t have to be some guru, genius,” he said. “Let’s move some people around and match up.”
Against Houston, a team some talking heads called a No. 16 seed (which was wrong because the WNIT doesn’t seed the teams), the Hogs had a fight for four quarters.
Nobody could get more than a five-point lead and Arkansas saw a slim lead they had most of the night disappear late before they managed to get the game to overtime.
It was Dungee, playing with four fouls, who drove into the lane with 19.2 seconds left in regulation, then hitting both free throws to tie the game at 73 and, combined with Houston not driving the ball at the end, set up the overtime.
In overtime she drove the lane again, made a short basket, drawing yet another foul with 3:43 left. Then she nailed the free throw for a 78-73 lead and the Hogs never looked back.
“You can put the ball in her hands and know that she’s going to go and get a foul,” Monk said later. “Everybody has trust in her. Whenever it’s a tough game or a close game, we know we can get the ball to Chelsea and at any given moment we know she’s going to get to the free throw line and get a foul and, of course, make her free throws.”
Against Houston Dungee made 15-of-17 free throws as the team made a whopping 28-of-34 (82 percent) from the line. Dungee alone made as many free throws as the Cougars shot the entire game.
“We were just expecting a physical game and didn’t get that,” Hughey said. “We had our chances.”
There was simply too much Dungee in the end for the Cougars.
“She just decided she wanted to be Kobe Bryant for her team,” Hughey said later, complimenting Neighbors for what this Razorback team as done and then Dungee for how she’s developed.
For her part, Dungee played down getting the Hogs’ single season scoring record with 724 points … and still counting. She passed Shelly Wallace (1988-89).
“I knew about it,” she said later. “I wasn’t too concerned about it. I just wanted to play for my team. I wanted to get this win and make it as far as we can in this tournament.”
That will be at least one more game. Arkansas will host Alabama-Birmingham on Sunday in a 2 p.m. game.
