Welcome to the club of the Mississippi State elite, Jarvis Varnado.The sophomore defensive stalwart scored 10 points, grabbed 12 rebounds and swatted away 10 shots in Mississippi State’s (12-5, 3-0 SEC) victory Tuesday over Kentucky (7-8, 1-1).
The triple-double put him in a distinct club with junior Jamont Gordon and former Bulldog Lawrence Roberts as the only Mississippi State players to accomplish the feat.
“Any time you earn a triple-double, it’s impressive,” head coach Rick Stansbury said. “And to do that with blocked shots is even more impressive. Even better, he was able to play 36 minutes and only two fouls.”
Though to say that worrying about the triple-double was the only thing on Varnado’s mind would be an inaccurate statement.
He saw his team’s 11-point lead with 9:43 remaining in the game shrivel to only a three-point lead with a shade over five minutes left in the contest.
With the lead trimmed to three with only three minutes to go, the Wildcats opted to foul Varnado on several Bulldog offensive possessions to send the sophomore to the free-throw line where he had been 0-for-4 on the night.
However, that strategy backfired on Kentucky as Varnado sank four of the six free throws he shot for the remainder of the contest.
“They knew I’m a poor free throw shooter,” the Brownsville, Tenn., native said. “That’s something I’ve got to work on. But I did a decent job on them, and we still won the game.”
The rest of the team came through from the free throw line as well, going 9-for-12 for the remainder of the game, including two crucial free throws from Barry Stewart to expand a two-point lead into a four-point lead with only five seconds left in the game.
The team shot 51.5 percent from the free-throw line for the game, but the players made all of their free shots late in the game when it mattered.
“If you make free throws, then it’s a different ball game,” said Gordon, who went 5-for-9 from the charity stripe. “It was kind of difficult, but I think we’ll get back on a roll and start making free throws.”
However, Gordon contributed more than just free throws during Tuesday’s game. He scored a game-high 24 points to give him his seventh 20-point game of the season.
He also had the task of guarding Kentucky’s senior guards, Ramel Bradley and Joe Crawford, at different points during the game.
The duo was one of the bright spots for Kentucky as they combined for 42 points, with Bradley scoring 22 and Crawford contributing 20.
Although it gave up those points to the Wildcats’ guards, the nation’s top-ranked defense held Kentucky to 38.3 percent from the field for the game.
The number is only three percentage points higher than the Bulldogs’ season average of 35.1 percent.
The victory over Kentucky gave Mississippi State its seventh consecutive win and its best SEC start since the 1994 season.
The Bulldogs will look to extend both streaks as they travel to Tuscaloosa, Ala., Saturday for a 2 p.m. tipoff against Alabama.
Alabama owns the edge in all-time meetings between the two teams with a 110-67 record over the Bulldogs, including an 80-79 victory over the Bulldogs in Tuscaloosa last season.
However, Mississippi State dominated the Crimson Tide in their latest face-off teams with a 91-67 triumph.
Saturday’s game has added meaning on paper with the Bulldogs owning the 3-0 start in SEC play, but freshman guard Phil Turner said the team won’t be making any major changes to tweak its play over the next few days.
“It’s the same that we’ve been doing,” Turner said. “Don’t try to fix anything that’s not broken.”
And while that’s something that senior forward Charles Rhodes agrees with, he admitted that there is a bit of added pressure now that the SEC wins are accumulating and the team SEC record remains unblemished.
“We’re undefeated in the SEC, so everyone is going to be trying to knock us down,” Rhodes said. “And Alabama is one of our biggest rivals, so it will be really tough going in there and staying undefeated [in the SEC].