Bulldogs Fall To Northwestern State In OT, 76-75
Via Media Relations
Keenan Jones’ 3-pointer with 44 seconds left in overtime lifted Northwestern State to a 76-75 victory over Mississippi State on Saturday night.
Mississippi State, which blew a 21-point second-half lead, had a chance to win it after Jones missed two free throws with 34.3 seconds remaining and the Bulldogs called a time-out with 12.4 seconds left.
But the Demons wouldn’t allow Jamall Edmondson a clear look. He threw up an off-balance airball and Dietrich Slater knocked the rebound out of bounds with 2 seconds left. Piotr Stelmach intercepted the inbounds pass at midcourt, but his desperation heave at the buzzer failed to draw iron.
Alfonse Dyer had 21 points and 10 rebounds for Northwestern State (2-1), which beat a Southeastern Conference team for the first time since 1988.
Mississippi State (3-1) took the lead 13 seconds into overtime on a dunk by Charles Rhodes. After Northwestern State twice tied it, Vernon Goodrich gave the Bulldogs a 75-73 lead on a dunk with 52.4 seconds left.
Jones then buried a 3-pointer from the left wing about 8 seconds later to give the Demons the lead for good.
Either team could’ve won it in regulation. Clifton Lee threw the ball away with 16.5 seconds left and the score tied at 67 for the Demons. The Bulldogs then worked the ball to freshman Jamont Gordon, who was stripped by Tyronn Mitchell with about 2 seconds left, and Mitchell’s half-court shot just before the buzzer rimmed out.
Scrappy Northwestern State used a full-court press to force the Bulldogs into 25 turnovers, and the Demons scored 31 points off those takeaways.
Gordon led Mississippi State with 15 points. Wesley Morgan had a career-high 13 points and 11 rebounds, and Edmondson also had 13 points for the Bulldogs, whose 18-game non-conference winning streak at home was snapped.
Luke Rogers had 13 points, Lee added 11 and Jermaine Wallace had 10 points for the Demons, whose only previous victory over an SEC team came 17 years ago at Kentucky.
Mississippi State led by 21 points four times, the final time coming at 41-20 on Slater’s basket 46 seconds into the second half.
From there, Northwestern State scored 11 straight points to close to within 10, and later used a 12-1 run to tie it at 52 on Jermaine Spencer’s baseline drive with 6:55 remaining.
POSTGAME QUOTES
MSU Head Coach Rick Stansbury
Opening Comments:
“Give Northwestern (La.) a lot of credit. In the second half they flat out-toughed us, out-worked us and wanted the game more than we did, so give them a lot of credit. They did a great job in that press. We came out in the second half and basically did the opposite of what we talked about in the locker room. We said the key would be the first five minutes of the second half. I think the first five minutes of the half we had seven turnovers and they scored either 12 or 14 points in those five minutes of the half. We found every way to throw it (the ball) away. We found out about some guys who didn’t want to handle it against the press and who turned it over against the press.”
On Reginald Delk:
“No, he did not get hurt. I just didn’t know if he could handle the ball against that press. Could he handle it better than anybody else? Looking back, probably so.”
On nights like this:
“You go on the road and get a huge win Wednesday night, come back and play a first half and get a big lead against a pretty good basketball team. I thought we absolutely shut it down in the second half. That press made us speed up, turn the basketball over. Jamall Edmondson is the only guy that really handles that ball against the press with any confidence and toughness.”
On the press:
“We only had one handler, Jamall (Edmondson). Fatigue really set in on us.”
On the final play in overtime:
“It wasn’t quite what we wanted. Jamall Edmondson has freedom to go play, but it wasn’t what we wanted by no means.”
Northwestern State Coach Mike McConathy
Opening Comments:
“I’m excited for our team to be able to come into a well-respected program and be able to get a win over an SEC school. I’m excited that our kids didn’t fold their tents and go to the house. They showed a lot of poise and determination to fight back. They had the understanding that if you can get to the four-minute mark of any game with an opportunity to win, good things can happen.”
On the turnaround in the second half:
“It was probably the 13-14 minute mark. I felt like we chipped away enough where the deficit was almost down inside double digits. When it got to nine, I felt pretty strongly about our opportunity to do well. At the half we talked about the fact that we always say we’re going to play harder than the opposing team. Mississippi State did a great job of taking everything out of us in the first half. I felt like in the second half, we decided we were going to be the aggressor instead of standing back and being passive. I think that was the difference.”
On the style change:
“The biggest thing is we generally rotate five and five. We’ve done that ever since I was a junior college coach. We play five players at a time, and we haven’t got back into that routine because we’ve had some injuries. I just told them they’re going to play the hardest they can for three to four minutes, and we’re going to get back to where we’re supposed to be. That style change put us back into a position to be competitive. From being competitive, you get an opportunity for something to happen. We probably ran four or five different set offenses trying to attack their zone. At halftime I said we’ll do one thing offensively and one thing defensively. We went to the boards. We were out-rebounded in the first half and went out in the second half came back and out-rebounded them. I thought that was a big deal. We were able to shoot almost 45 percent on our field goals, so that was a huge accomplishment against a very good team.”
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