For the second night in a row, Mississippi State found itself backed up into a corner by a supposedly inferior opponent. And for the second night in a row, the Bulldogs showed a little something extra at the end of the game to pull out an ugly win.
Mississippi State used an 11-0 run late in the game to erase a one-point deficit and defeat Birmingham-Southern 55-48.
“It wasn’t pretty, but we found a way to win,” said head coach Rick Stansbury. “We showed a lot of guts and I’m proud of that. It will get prettier as the season goes.”
For the second game in a row, the Bulldogs looked lost inside without pre-season All American Lawrence Roberts, who sat out the game with a broken nose. Center Marcus Campbell had four fouls and only two points and the Bulldogs did not record a point in the post.
“We had no productivity inside tonight,” Stansbury said. “We’ve got to be able to score in the paint against a zone defense. Fortunately we’ve got somebody coming in who might be able to help us a little bit,” Stansbury said, alluding to Roberts.
Both teams were cold from the floor in the first half with Mississippi State shooting 34 percent and Birmingham-Southern shooting 38 percent and the score showed. Mississippi State went to the locker room up 25-22.
The three-point lead remained stable until the Panthers went on a small 5-1 run to take a 38-37 lead with 10 minutes remaining. It was at this point where Winsome Frazier decided enough was enough.
The senior guard had been having a terrible game up to this point. He had only scored four points and was 0-6 on his trademark three-pointers. Frazier put all of that behind him and took control of the game, scoring 14 of the Bulldogs’ final 18 points.
After making a basket to put the Bulldogs up by a point, he made a breakaway lay-up off of a steal and then, after a basket by point guard Gary Ervin, made a three-point play to finish off the 11-0 run and give the Bulldogs a 48-38 lead with a little more than five minutes left.
Just when the Bulldogs thought the lead was safe, Birmingham-Southern made a run to cut the lead to 48-44. Frazier then picked the right time to hit his first three-pointer, putting the Bulldogs up 51-44 with 1:29 left and effectively burying the Panthers.
“Winsome will always play hard,” Stansbury said. “If he doesn’t shoot the ball well, he’ll still play hard and help the team.”
Frazier said that because his shot wasn’t there, he had to find another way to score and help his team.
“I was just focused on getting my team going,” Frazier said. “I couldn’t let one thing stop my game. I don’t want to go home right now.”