It was more of a coronation than a basketball game.
Mississippi State (24-2, 13-2 SEC) played its best offensive game of the season and blasted the Auburn Tigers (13-13, 4-11 SEC) 105-91 in front of 10,458 at Humphrey Coliseum to clinch a share of their first regular season SEC championship since 1991.
The 105 points scored was the most a State team has scored in an SEC game since they hung 105 on Florida in 1959.
“What a way to cap off your final game at home when the game is to win the SEC championship,” said MSU coach Rick Stansbury.
The outcome of the game was never in doubt after Winsome Frazier scored 12 consecutive points for the Bulldogs on four three-pointers in the first half. Frazier hit six threes before intermission. He finished the game with a career-high 26 points.
“I came out playing with good confidence and they kept feeding me the ball,” Frazier said. “When you’re hot, they keep passing it to you, so I just kept hitting them.”
“(Frazier) came out in a zone three out of the last four games,” Stansbury said. “Tonight, it was just unbelievable.”
The Bulldogs hit 11 threes in the first half, including a three at the buzzer by Timmy Bowers to give State a 53-38 lead and put the Tigers away. The Dawgs added three more treys in the second half to finish the game with 14 treys, which tied a school record.
“We really work hard on shooting,” Shane Power said. “One day we were all here after practice for an hour and we’ll go over to the Sanderson Center and get off a couple hundred shots on our off days. We’ve got the capabilities to shoot lights out, and tonight was the evidence of that.”
Four Bulldogs finished the game in double digits, led by Frazier’s 26.
Lawrence Roberts had his 15th double-double of the season, finishing with 12 points and 15 rebounds while Power scored 17 and Bowers added 15.
The only suspense in the second half was whether the Bulldogs would hit 100 points, which they did on a Lincoln Smith baseline jumper with 1:39 remaining.
“Nobody was going to beat Mississippi State tonight,” Auburn coach Cliff Ellis said. “You can bring Duke in here or whoever you want to. If they play every game like they did tonight, nobody’s going to beat them.”
The big lead allowed Stansbury to empty his bench at the final media timeout with 3:01 remaining and let senior reserves Dennis Buse, Errol Bennett and Lincoln Smith take the floor along with senior starters Bowers and Branden Vincent one last time on Senior Night.
“It was special to have a big enough lead where we could let them get in there and enjoy the game and give the crowd an opportunity to give them their last farewell,” Stansbury said.
One Bulldog senior should be ranked among the best to wear Maroon and White, Stansbury said.
“Timmy Bowers has meant so much not just to this team but to this program. In my opinion, he is the best guard ever to play at Mississippi State,” Stansbury said.
The players broke out the 2004 SEC Championship caps and T-shirts in the final moments and cut the nets down at the end of the game with Queen’s “We Are the Champions” blasting over the loudspeakers as the students flooded the court to join in the celebration.
“It felt real good,” Frazier said. “It brought back some memories, my freshman year we cut down some nets, too.”
One by one the Bulldog players ascended the ladder, and armed with a pair of scissors, took a piece of the net with them for a keepsake. Shane Power was the exception. He wound up with the entire net draped around his neck after the game.
“I don’t know how I ended up with the net,” Power said. “But it’s the best piece of jewelry I’ve got.”
For transfer walk-on senior Buse, his two minutes on the floor at the end of the game with the crowd chanting “Buuuuuuse” and the piece of the net he collected was extra special.
“Not many people get to experience this. It was really heartwarming,” Buse said. “My first year at Sam Houston State, I got a ring when we won the conference. But (winning) the Southland Conference is not as unique as winning the SEC.”