Jamont Gordon went into Wednesday’s game at Vanderbilt with every intention to display his talents to his hometown and to assist the Bulldogs in doing something no other team had done this season – defeat the Vanderbilt Commodores at Memorial Gym.He had accomplished the former, scoring a team-high 24 points during the 40 minutes of regulation.
But Shan Foster took objection to the latter.
The Vanderbilt senior sank nine 3-pointers during the final 25 minutes, including the game-winner with 2.7 seconds remaining, and tallied an SEC season-high and a career-high 42 points to give the No. 16 Commodores (20-9, 11-4 SEC) the 86-85 overtime victory over the Bulldogs (25-5, 10-5 SEC) at Memorial Gym.
“There’s nothing you can say except that they won the game, and Foster beat us,” Mississippi State head coach Rick Stansbury said in a post-game radio interview. “There’s absolutely nothing else we could have done, and there’s nothing else I would have done.”
Gordon was forced to tip his hat off to Foster as well.
“[It was] just unbelievable,” Mississippi State’s junior point guard said. “He hit some shots and just got in his rhythm. We contested all his shots, but there’s not much you can do about that.”
Gordon was aggravated by an injury in his leg during the final 30 seconds of overtime, rendering him helpless as he watched Foster drain his game-winning 3-pointer.
“I really did not want to lose my last game in Memorial Gym, and I was willing to do whatever it took to make sure that that didn’t happen,” Foster said.
Bulldogs senior Charles Rhodes had 22 points and 14 rebounds to give him a double-double in the game.
The Bulldogs will follow up their SEC regular season road finale with their final regular season contest on Saturday against the LSU Tigers (13-16, 6-9 SEC).
The Tigers now sport somewhat of a different look compared their Jan. 9 showdown in which the Bulldogs came out with a 61-39 victory.
On Feb. 8, head coach John Brady was replaced by associate head coach, and former Mississippi State basketball player, Butch Pierre after a disappointing 8-13 start to the season.
The Bulldogs will then travel to Atlanta to compete in the SEC Tournament, with their first game falling on Mar. 14 due to the first round bye they receive for winning the SEC Western Division.
Following the tournament, they will then wait for their name to be called by the NCAA Tournament selection committee when it announces the field of 65 teams on Sunday, March 16.