With their coach in the locker room and their defensive stopper on the bench with foul trouble, the Mississippi State Bulldogs looked rattled for 16 minutes and even trailed by nine Saturday. But the Dawgs regained their composure and cruised to an 80-56 win over the Mississippi Rebels in front of a state-record crowd of 10,735 at Humphrey Coliseum.
“Once they regained their composure late in the first half it was a completely different basketball game,” said Bulldog coach Rick Stansbury.
Stansbury was forced to watch most of the game on television from MSU baseball coach Ron Polk’s office after being ejected with 14:52 remaining in the first half after receiving his second technical foul.
After being whistled for his first technical for protesting a charge call on Branden Vincent, Stansbury received his second after silently protesting a traveling call on Timmy Bowers.
Bowers appeared to get elbowed in the head by a Rebel player on the traveling call and stayed down on the floor for several seconds. Stansbury walked out onto the court to check on his point guard. After Bowers was helped off the floor, Stansbury stared at referee Karl Hess, grabbed his own wrist to suggest a foul should have been called and shrugged. That was enough for Hess, who quickly gave Stansbury the gate.
A fuming Stansbury glared at Hess and put his hand over his throat in a “choke” sign as he left the court.
The ejection, along with Vincent’s foul trouble, at first rattled the Bulldogs as a 6-2 lead turned into a 27-18 deficit with 3:36 remaining in the first half.
“Any time you lose your coach, you’re going to get rattled a little bit,” MSU forward Lawrence Roberts said.
“I put (my team) in a very tough situation early in that basketball game,” Stansbury added.
However, the Bulldogs forced five Mississippi turnovers in the last three minutes and outscored the Rebels 13-2 to take a 31-29 lead into the locker room.
“We just picked up our energy level (at the end of the first half),” Bowers said. “We weren’t really guarding them on the defensive end. They were getting a lot of open looks. We just tried to pick up our intensity and the last part of the first half and all of the second half we did it.”
State continued its run in the second half, starting the frame on a 13-4 run to expand its lead to 11. The Rebels tried to press to slow the Bulldogs down, but that led to MSU lay-ups as they broke the press with ease and turned the game into a rout.
“Our eyes almost light up now when teams press us,” forward Shane Power said. “There’s so many openings in a press and there’s so much room.”
Mississippi’s aggressive defense led to numerous foul calls against the Rebels and State took advantage, hitting 31 free throws in 40 attempts while UM was only 7-15 from the line.
Mississippi’s strategy of fouling Roberts before he could shoot backfired as the 60 percent free throw shooter made 14 of his 18 free throw attempts.
“They’ve (Mississippi) got a rule, a no lay up rule,” guard Winsome Frazier said. “You know when you come in the paint, they’re going to try and foul you hard.”
The Bulldogs also shut down the Rebels’ leading scorer, Justin Reed. He came into the game averaging over 19 points per contest, but only scored 10 as he was hampered much of the game with foul trouble.
“Reed was no factor,” Stansbury said. “I thought we did a terrific job on him all day long.”
Stansbury gave credit to his assisstant coaches Robert Kirby and Phil Cunningham, who took over for the coach after he was ejected.
“My assistant coaches did a terrific job,” Stansbury said. “I thought they made great adjustments, especially in the second half. That’s what a staff is about. I’m proud of the way they stepped up and handled this.”
Vincent also praised the assistant coaches for helping the team keep its head about it.
“They helped us keep our composure and ran good plays for us down the stretch,” Vincent said. “They really did their homework.”
Four out of five Mississippi State starters scored in double digits. Roberts led the way with 24. Power added 15 while Bowers and Frazier chipped in 14 and 12, respectively.
The victory is the sixth consecutive for the Bulldogs over their in-state rival.
Frazier said it was important to get the win for their ejected coach.
“He believed in us so we believed in him,” Frazier said. “Even though he got thrown out of the game, it was like he was still on the court with us.”