After falling at Louisiana State on Wednesday night, the Bulldogs of Mississippi State returned home to face another group of Tigers from Auburn on Saturday afternoon. State was prepared to pad their NCAA Tournament resume and did so, beating the Auburn Tigers 89-53. The win gave Mississippi State their largest victory margin over Auburn in the series, while holding the Tigers to their lowest-point output this season. “I said it the first time that we played and I’ll say it again, maybe it is the matchups and the physical play of Mississippi State. This is the best basketball team that I’ve seen in our conference. They are skilled in every aspect,” Auburn head coach Cliff Ellis stated.
The Bulldogs got started with a three pointer by Michael Gholar and never looked back. State would have consecutive trips down the floor with Marckell Patterson hitting two threes and the Bulldogs had built up a 20-4 lead with 13:46 remaining in the first half. The Bulldogs would see the lead grow, as Patterson hit another three pointer. Ontario Harper followed with two more threes and State had a 32-7 lead with 7:56 remaining before the intermission. State shot 63 percent from behind the arc against Alabama and this game would be no different, as the Bulldogs shot a blistering 64 percent in the first half against the Tigers.
Timmy Bowers sent the Bulldogs in at the half with a 20-point lead, 44-24, draining a three with four seconds remaining.
“We have been shooting the ball well the past couple of games, and that just comes from repetition and shooting a lot of shots in practice,” Bowers said.
The Bulldogs returned in the second half with the same offensive aggressiveness, as Derrick Zimmerman slammed the ball home with 19:20 in the game, extending the lead to 22 points. “We had to come back ready to play, and if we had not come ready to play, it would have been a different outcome today. But I knew from the opening tip that we were ready to play. Today, we wanted to be the aggressor,” Zimmerman said.
MSU had been outrebounded in the last four contests, but this would not be the case against Auburn, as State won the board war as well, outrebounding Auburn by 23 (48-25).
“We just got hammered on the boards. It happened when we played them at home and it happened again today,” Ellis said. “My hat is off to this Mississippi State team. They are as good of a team as I have seen since their 1996 season. I think they are one of the top teams in our league. They are very talented,” he concluded.
Auburn’s Adam Harrington hit a three pointer to narrow the lead to 62-36 with 12:31 on the clock, but MSU’s Gholar brought the lead out to 28 with a dunk and 11:24 remaining on the clock.
Harrington led Auburn in scoring with 15 points. Lewis Monroe was the only other Tiger in double figures, adding 11 points.
State saw its largest lead of 39 points (85-46) on a dunk by Lincoln Smith with 3:05 remaining in the game. Marcus Campbell rounded out the scoring on a jumper, with seven seconds left in the game. State finished the game with five players in double figures. Bowers led with 16 points.
“I think these past three games have been my kind of games. I have been playing consistent, coming out and doing what I need to do on offense and also playing good on defense,” Bowers said.
Patterson moved to 22nd on the MSU all-time scoring list, adding 12 points. Zimmerman and Mario Austin followed with 11 and Michal Ignerski rounded out the five with 10 points.
“We took the LSU game as a learning experience. We took that game and said it wouldn’t happen like that again. So today we came out in the second half and took it to them,” Austin said.
Austin added his 6th career double-double, fifth on the season with a career-high 14 rebounds. Zimmerman moved even further up in the list of MSU’s all-time assist leaders with nine. He now stands in ninth place with 292 career assists. The win gave the Bulldogs the season sweep over the Tigers and the Maroon and White’s third straight win over Auburn.
“I’m very pleased with the team effort we had today. I’m happy with the fact that we were able to bounce back from that difficult situation. To respond like we responded today really says a lot about the character of our team,” MSU head coach Rick Stansbury said.
State must now prepare for another road test, as the Bulldogs travel to Nashville to take on the Vanderbilt Commodores on Wednesday.
The road has not been kind to the Bulldogs, as they have managed only one win this season.
The Commodores have dropped their last three games, including a 66-43 loss to South Carolina on Saturday, in Nashville.
When the Bulldogs and Commodores squared off last season, in Starkville, the Bulldogs handed Vanderbilt an 80-63 defeat. Vanderbilt is led by the SEC’s top three-point shooter, Brendon Plavich.
Tip-off on Wednesday is scheduled for 7 p.m.