Mississippi State enjoyed its stay in New Orleans with a
historical win, career performances in a milestone victory, and a
valiant effort to defend its Southeastern Conference Tournament
crown.
MSU began defending its title against its nemesis from the
north, the Mississippi Rebels, in their first SEC Tourney
meeting.
State pounded the ball inside to Mario Austin for 19 points and
Timmy Bowers and Derrick Zimmerman each added 14 points to claim
three wins over the Rebels in the same season for the first time
since 1943.
“We did a great job of sharing the basketball,” MSU head coach
Rick Stansbury said. “Anytime you have 13 assists against a
defensive team like this, you are doing great things. Z (six
assists, one turnover) controlled the point.”
“We thought that it would be tough because they always say that
the third time is a lucky charm, but we weren’t going to let this
(be their lucky charm),” Zimmerman said.
The 73-64 victory mercifully ended the Rebels’ season and set up
a semifinal match-up with the Louisiana State Tigers.
With both splitting on their home courts in the regular season,
the Superdome provided the stage for one Bulldog to flirt with
history and two others to make it.
Zimmerman, a Louisiana native, wanted to make the Tigers pay for
letting him get away. He scored nine, rebounded nine, dished 11 and
made just two turnovers as he narrowly missed the first triple
double in Bulldog history. One more point and one more rebound and
the senior would have accomplished this rare feat for the first
time in SEC Tournament history.
Bowers netted six three pointers on his way to a career high 26
points, while Michal Ignerski scored 15, and Austin added 14 in
Stansbury’s 100th win as MSU’s head coach.
Stansbury is the fourth coach to reach the century mark in
Bulldog history and did so in the third fewest games. Stansbury
took only 158 games (Babe McCarthy 142 games, E.C. Hayes 143 games)
to reach the milestone and was the first to do so within five
seasons.
“Someone mentioned it and I hadn’t thought about it,” Stansbury
said. “All the credit goes to the players.”
This victory earned the Bulldogs a second chance at the Kentucky
Wildcats, who had steamrolled everyone in their path except for
MSU.
Prior to tip-off none of the “experts” gave MSU a chance, but
the Bulldogs thrive on proving the “experts” wrong and led 31-30 at
halftime. State double-teamed and confused all-tournament center
Marquis Estill, who made four turnovers and scored just a deuce in
the first half.
In the second half the Wildcats pounced and outscored the ‘Dawgs
18-8 in the first 7:25 to take the biggest lead of the game. State
didn’t waiver, turned up the defense gave the ‘Cats all they could
handle.
Zimmerman and Bowers attacked the hoop despite a two-hand touch
defense that Kentucky guards used to impede progress.
Conspicuously, Kentucky made 13 of 19 free throws in the second
half while State capitalized on five of nine.
“You guys (media) saw the game,” Stansbury said. “There are
judgment calls and a lot of times one team is happy and one team is
not and you know which team is not happy.”
Tournament MVP guard Keith Bogans led all scorers with 22.
Estill finished with 13.
Bowers (13 points, three steals) and Zimmerman (11 points, five
assists) joined Bogans and Estill and LSU forward Ronald Dupree on
the all-tournament team.
“We are very proud to have put ourselves in position to beat the
best team in the country,” Stansbury said.
Stansbury 101 will be in session Friday night in Birmingham,
Ala. The MSU Bulldogs will play the Bulldogs of Butler University
around 9 p.m.