TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -Timmy Bowers was not going to let his team lose. Not with an outright SEC championship and a potential one-seed in the NCAA tournament on the line.
So Mississippi State’s senior captain did what he has done so often this season. He stepped up and delivered big for the Bulldogs.
Bowers’ two buzzer-beating shots, one at the end of regulation that forced overtime and one that pushed the Bulldogs past Alabama in front of 15,316 fans at Coleman Coliseum in Tuscaloosa Saturday night.
“Everybody on the team wanted the ball in my hands,” Bowers said. “I just tried to make a basketball play.”
His leaner in the lane with 1.2 seconds remaining in regulation tied the game at 75 and capped off a furious rally by the Bulldogs. State trailed 66-52 with 7:40 remaining in the game before ripping a 15-1 run to tie the game up at 67 with under three minutes remaining.
However, the Crimson Tide did not fold. Alabama went on a small run of their own to give them a 75-70 lead with 25 seconds remaining.
After a Bowers three-pointer cut the lead to two points, Alabama’s Earnest Shelton missed the front end of a one-and-one. Bowers then extended a regular season five more minutes.
Bama sprinted to a quick 79-75 lead in the overtime before a Bowers two and a Gary Ervin three gave State its first lead since early in the first half. Alabama went back on top after two Kennedy Winston free throws and seemed to have the game in its grasp after an offensive rebound on a missed shot with under 30 seconds left in overtime. However, the Tide turned the ball over after Antoine Pettway was trapped on the sideline and stepped out of bounds. That set up Bowers’ heroics for the second time.
The senior guard dribbled to the baseline, pump-faked to get Winston up in the air and released the ball with one second remaining. Alabama’s full court pass was intercepted by Lawrence Roberts and the ‘Dogs celebrated their first outright SEC title in 41 years.
“I knew he wasn’t going to pass,” Winston said. “He pump-faked, and I just tried to hold my hands up and keep from fouling.”
For Bowers, who finished with a team-high 20 points, working against the clock has become a routine. His three pointer with less than 10 seconds remaining against South Carolina sent that game to overtime. His baseline floater with under two minutes remaining against Vanderbilt put the Commodores away. He also drained a three at the buzzer in last Tuesday’s win over Auburn.
“Late in the game, I just have total confidence that I can make a bucket,” Bowers said. “I think that comes from experience. Being in those type of situations year in and year out, you kind of get a feel for it.”
The turnaround came after the Bulldogs played unquestionably their worst half of the season. Mississippi State’s potent transition game was a non-factor in the first half and they shot just 29 percent from the floor.
Alabama, meanwhile, shot a blistering 49 percent from the floor and took a 47-31 lead into the locker room. Bowers insisted that the Bulldogs were not feeling a hangover from their celebration after defeating Auburn last Tuesday to clinch a share of the SEC title.
“I don’t think it was so much (the win over Auburn),” Bowers said. “We were just so pumped up for this game that we played a little tight. We felt the pressure of coming here and beating Alabama since they beat us on our home court. We wanted to get some revenge on them and that was where most of the pressure came from.”
“There were a lot of people saying that this team couldn’t get back up after they cut down the nets (against Auburn),” MSU coach Rick Stansbury said. “That just tells you what this team is made of.”
Lawrence Roberts single-handedly kept the Bulldogs in the game in the second half with his rebounding. The Wooden Player of the Year candidate scored 18 points and grabbed a career-high 21 rebounds, including 11 boards on the offensive glass.
As a team, Mississippi State outrebounded Alabama 56-36 and grabbed an astonishing 29 offensive boards to Alabama’s 12. It was a far cry from the first time the two teams met, when the Tide held the rebounding lead.
“Being outrebounded the first game gave us motivation for this game,” Roberts said. “We wanted to go out there and really do a good job of controlling the backboards and knowing that if we did that, the outcome of the game would be in our favor.”
Bowers’ 20 and Roberts’ 18 led the ‘Dogs while Winsome Frazier had 15 and Shane Power added 11. Shelton and Pettway combined for 46 for Bama.
With the win, the Bulldogs clinched their first outright SEC regular season championship since the 1962-63 season and will entertain serious thoughts of a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.
“All the talk about Kentucky being right on our butts is over with now.” Bowers said. “We’re the outright champs and nobody can ever take that away from us.”