Come one and come all to see the Charles Rhodes show. That essentially summed up the first half of Saturday’s game for the Bulldogs. The senior forward, who battled symptoms of a cold for most of the week leading up to the game, got the ball in his hands early in the game and utilized his array of offensive weapons to score 15 of the team’s first 20 points.Though the early cushion didn’t stand for the entire contest, it was a crucial opening punch for the Bulldogs (17-7, 8-2 SEC) in their 80-74 victory over the Razorbacks (17-7, 6-4 SEC) in front of 8,793 fans in Humphrey Coliseum.
“I probably haven’t ever been in a zone like I was in during that first half,” Rhodes said.
The senior tallied 19 of his game-high 24 points in that first half, which was enough to put his team ahead by 13 points at the halftime intermission.
“But I knew it was going to be different in the second half, because they were going to do some things to stop me from getting the ball,” he said.
The defensive adjustments made by the Razorbacks held Rhodes to only five points in the second half. But their offensive adjustments were probably more shocking to the Bulldogs. Arkansas came out of the locker room with a strong mindset at the onset of the second half and answered a Jarvis Varnado dunk with a 19-2 run. Arkansas sophomore guard Patrick Beverley’s 3-pointer to cap the devastating run presented the Razorbacks with their first lead of the second half.
“In that second half, Arkansas brought another level of energy that I hadn’t seen out of them,” Mississippi State head coach Rick Stansbury said.
Junior point guard Jamont Gordon said Stansbury helped calm the team as Arkansas made its run.
“Coach just told us to calm down,” said Gordon, who finished the game with nine points, eight assists and eight rebounds. “We got rattled a little bit, but we just had to become patient.”
The Bulldogs did that and regained their composure, as well as the lead, as time ticked off the clock in the second half. They accomplished that feat by sinking free throws. The once much-maligned facet of the Mississippi State squad suddenly became one of its biggest assets because of good performances in this game and its previous game at Auburn.
In this game, the team shot 79.3 percent from the line and sank 17 of its 21 attempts in the second half. The Razorbacks shot only 53.3 percent for the game, which led Arkansas head coach John Pelphrey to believe that free throws were pivotal.
“They went to the line 29 times and hit 23 of them, so that’s basically the separator in the game,” he said.
Stansbury praised his team, which entered the game with the third-worst free throw percentage out of the SEC in conference games, for its solid showing from the charity stripe.
“We’re a good free-throw shooting team now,” the tenth-year coach said. “I think we’re a good free-throw shooting team, and we’re finding ways now to get up there and do it.”
Sophomore Barry Stewart, who totaled 19 points in the game, was perfect in all six of his attempts at the line and said practice and added focus assisted in the team’s improved free-throw performance.
“It’s great because we know we can shoot free throws, but it’s just a matter of concentration,” he said. “I think the team has taken concentration to it.”
With the win over Arkansas, the team opened up a two-game lead over the Razorbacks in the SEC Western Division with only six games remaining. Four of those six contests will be played on the road, with the first against the Ole Miss Rebels (17-7, 3-7 SEC) on Wednesday at 7 p.m. Although the Rebels have dropped six of their last seven conference games, Stewart said he still anticipates a hard-fought game against the Bulldogs’ in-state rivals.
“It’s going to be a good game,” the Shelbyville, Tenn., native said. “Ole Miss is a good team, and we’re looking forward to preparing for them.