Cockfights are unpleasant; dogfights can be grueling. Aesthetics were abandoned Wednesday night as the South Carolina Gamecocks (7-8, 1-4 Southeastern Conference) visited the Mississippi State Bulldogs (11-4, 1-3 SEC).
Following the third consecutive loss for MSU, the No. 22 Bulldogs shot 49 percent for the game and played a choking defense that held South Carolina to 27.5 percent from the field in a 40-turnover grudge match that became a lopsided 64-48 victory.
“I was concerned coming into this game about being able to heal after that last game (overtime loss at Alabama),” said MSU head coach Rick Stansbury. “I knew how good South Carolina was, and I knew we needed something good to happen for us.”
After eight minutes of play, the Bulldogs had nine points and nine turnovers while the Gamecocks countered with eight points and six turnovers. The score stagnated for almost four minutes until a Timmy Bowers jumper, a Winsome Frazier tip-in, four consecutive Mario Austin field goals and a Frazier three pointer capped a 15-4 Bulldog run.
“Frazier does what you need a guy coming off the bench to do,” said Stansbury. “He has the ability to make shots and get some deflections.”
“We didn’t let being 0-3 get us down,” said Frazier who scored nine of his 11 in the first half. “I’m like the energy guy. My teammates look at me and say, ‘We need some energy.’ So I just come in and give us a spurt.”
This spurt marked the first time in the game that Austin, who finished with a game-high 18 points, had gotten the ball with scoring opportunities.
“I knew once I got it in my hands I could make something happen,” said the All-SEC center.
“It concerns me any time Mario Austin is not touching the ball,” said Stansbury. “It was good to see Iggy (Michal Ignerski) step out and knock down a couple of shots because that means so much to our basketball team. It keeps defenders from helping out on Mario so much and allows easier passing lanes.”
South Carolina failed to make a field goal in the final five minutes of the first session, but capitalized on seven free throws and lingered 31-19 at intermission.
“We looked each other in the eyes and said, ‘Here we go again. Let’s learn from the previous halftime situations and make this into a positive.’ We wanted to come out and finish what we started,” said Derrick Zimmerman. “We had not done that recently, but we took them out of what they were trying to do.”
Ignerski (10 points, 9 boards) and Bowers (15 points, 5 assists) nailed consecutive three pointers to widen the gap 42-24. State also applied full court pressure early in the second half to prevent a South Carolina comeback.
“If we had a magic potion for preventing comebacks, I wouldn’t be standing here right now,” said Stansbury. “One thing we didn’t do at the start of the second half was turn the ball over.”
USC out-rebounded MSU 21-15 in the second session, and cut the gap to 10, but still had difficulty finding the bottom of the net with their shots.
The Bulldogs remain in the Magnolia State and will host Louisiana State (12-3, 1-3 SEC) at 2 p.m. Saturday. The Tigers, who just two weeks ago defeated the Bulldogs 85-72, are coming off back-to-back losses against Mississippi (67-57) and at Arkansas (73-65).
“LSU is going to be a good test for us,” said Zimmerman. “The biggest thing will be that we do to not stop ourselves from winning. We remember the loss pretty well; we were the No. 8 team in the country and they took it to us pretty good.”