For Arkansas point guard Gary Ervin, Mississippi State’s Humphrey Coliseum was not unfamiliar territory.What was unfamiliar for the former Bulldog was having the 7,477 fans in attendance Wednesday cheering against him as his Razorbacks fell 84-60 on the road.
“They were tough on him, and he expected it,” Arkansas head coach Stan Heath said. “It was just one of those games where he let everything affect him, and he just got a little down.”
Ervin did not start and had zero points in his first game in Starkville since transferring to Arkansas in 2005. He received a chorus of boos from around the arena any time he touched the ball.
“We knew how the crowd was going to react,” Bulldog senior Dietric Slater said. “But we knew Arkansas had other talented players. I’m sure he’s feeling pretty bad right now, though.”
Ervin was 0-for-4 and had three assists in the game and was never able to find his rhythm in the hostile environment.
“It wasn’t really about him,” said sophomore Jamont Gordon, who took over as point guard after Ervin left. “That’s just how I play defense on everybody. I just played hard like I usually do.”
It was the Bulldogs’ (14-10, 5-6) seventh straight home win over the Razorbacks (15-10, 4-7).
After Saturday’s 91-83 win over Auburn, this is the first set of back-to-back SEC wins for the Bulldogs since the 2004-2005 season.
“We were playing Arkansas tonight,” MSU head coach Rick Stansbury said. “We didn’t have any other game plan. He was just another point guard on another team.”
The Bulldog win combined with Florida’s win over Alabama puts the Bulldogs into a tie with the Tide for second place in the SEC West behind Mississippi.
State shot 58 percent as a team from behind the arc, with Gordon and sophomore Reginald Delk each hitting three.
“When you go 11-19 from the 3-point line, you can make a lot of things happen,” Stansbury said.
Arkansas shot 38 percent from the floor and committed 18 turnovers.
It was the 16th time this season that the Razorbacks have committed 15 or more turnovers in a game.
“Our inexperience is hurting us,” Heath said. “In high school and junior college those aren’t that big a deal. They think they can just make them up on the other end.
“Now, I think they’re starting to see that those things can really come back to bite you.”
Junior forward Charles Rhodes had a game-high 19 points and a team-high seven rebounds, while Gordon added 18 points and a game-high seven assists.
Delk had 11 points on 4-of-7 shooting, while Slater and freshman Barry Stewart each had 10 points.
“I think our team’s hitting its stride,” Stansbury said. “One thing we are doing well is we are second in SEC play in scoring. When you can score the basketball late in the year, we’re a difficult matchup for teams.”
Junior Forward Charles Thomas led all Razorback scorers with 14.
Sophomore Sean McCurdy added 10 points and three assists.