Fold the “Road Warriors” shirts back up. Hang them back in the closet. The kings of the road were dethroned Tuesday night in front of 13,787 spectators as No. 22 Alabama rolled to a 98-49 win over No. 17 Mississippi State.
“This is not last year anymore. We can’t be called the Road Warriors,” said MSU sophomore Gary Ervin. “We have to do something throughout the rest of the season to show how tough we really are.”
The nationally televised game was dubbed a showdown of national powers and lived up to the hype for the first five and a half minutes.
During that stretch Mississippi State tied the game twice and trailed by only one (9-8) when Alabama executed a 40-9 run over the final 14 and a half minutes to take a 49-18 halftime lead.
“Offensively we didn’t execute with any toughness. Defensively we didn’t have an answer for (Earnest) Shelton or (Kennedy) Winston,” MSU Head Coach Rick Stansbury said. “When you are not very good at either end, that is what happens in a basketball game.
The undersized backcourt of Mississippi State couldn’t compete with quickness and versatility of the Crimson Tide offense. Shelton, who took full advantage of a 6-inch height advantage over Jamall Edmondson, led the attack with a career high 34 points with 23 in the first half.
“Jamall guarding Shelton, without (Winsome) Frazier, we just didn’t have any answers for him,” Stansbury said.
The height mismatch with Edmondson is something the Bulldogs’ will have to deal with for the remainder of the season. According to Stansbury, Edmondson gives MSU the best personnel to run the type of offense they practice.
“There isn’t much tweaking we can do. We lost Frazier. We’re forced to play Jamall there (shooting guard). That is the only choice we have,” Stansbury said.
“(Ontario) Harper doesn’t give us any more quickness at the three (small forward). We’re forced to play what we have. We just have to get better at doing that.”
The explosive Alabama offensive prevented Mississippi State from getting into a transition game that would have allowed MSU to use their quickness and would have allowed MSU to set up on defense.
The Tide shot 56.7 percent from the floor for the first half and a deadly 70 percent from the three-point line.
“We weren’t able to get any stops defensively so we could get any offense in transition. That’s what we are pretty good at,” Stansbury said.
The inability to get into a rhythm during the game frustrated the Bulldogs and led to forced shots and a loss of effort. The Bulldogs were three for 20 in the first half and hit none of their three-point attempts.
“We just bowed down to them,” Ervin said. “There wasn’t any effort for the entire game. We just stepped out on the court and let them control the game.”
“It was like a video game. Everything they shot went in.”
The second half didn’t get any better for the Bulldogs. Alabama’s shooting was as deadly as it was in the first half. The Tide shot 56.7 percent from the floor again in the second half and the Bulldogs never got closer than 29.
The Bulldogs were led by All-American Lawrence Roberts with 19 points and seven rebounds. Ervin added 10 points but also had four of the teams 14 turnovers.
The 47-point defeat matches the second worst loss in school history. The other loss came in 1954 to Louisville 113-64. The worst loss in school history came at the hand of the Arkansas Razorback in 1993. Arkansas handed the Bulldogs at 57- point defeat, 115-58, in Fayetteville.
The outcome of Tuesday’s game left the Bulldogs with a bad taste in their mouth.
“It’s just one of those games that makes you want to throw up,” said MSU senior Shane Power, who ended the game with no points. “They caught fire, and we couldn’t throw a rock in the ocean.
“No one wants to admit this, but we aren’t as good as them right now.”