It was a perfect picture-Dick Vitale courtside, a national television audience watching on ESPN and 10,432 fans at Humphrey Coliseum screaming their heads off because Mississippi State was on the verge of pulling off one of the biggest home victories in school history against Kentucky Tuesday night.
But a jump ball call and a buzzer-beating lay-up off of a broken play left the Bulldogs mulling over a heartbreaking 67-66 loss to the Wildcats.
With under 10 seconds left in the game and down one, UK guard Gerald Fitch dribbled the ball off of his foot and a mad scramble ensued. The officials called a jump ball and Kentucky received the ball via the alternating possession rule with 2.5 seconds left.
“I jumped on top of the ball,” said MSU guard Timmy Bowers, who had the ball in both arms at the bottom of the pile. “They were trying to foul or something and the officials ended up calling a jump ball. I don’t know how they called it because I thought I had total control of the ball.”
Kentucky’s inbounds pass went under the basket and was tipped by Bulldog forward Lawrence Roberts before falling right into the hands of Wildcat forward Erik Daniels, who laid it up as the buzzer sounded.
“We were trying to get a shot for Gerald (Fitch) coming off a double screen and they switched out and took that away from him,” said Kentucky head coach Tubby Smith. “Erik (Daniels) was able to slip the screen, was open at the basket and was able to get his hand on it and bank it in before the buzzer sounded.”
If anyone blinked, they missed it.
“It was just one of those plays you never want to happen to you but it happened to us,” said Mississippi State head coach Rick Stansbury. “It was just one of those things.”
After trailing the entire game, the Bulldogs took their first lead with under two minutes to play and had a chance to put the game away in the final minute, but both Winsome Frazier and Bowers missed front ends of one-and-ones at the free throw line in the final 30 seconds.
Kentucky bolted out to a big lead in the first half thanks to Bulldog turnovers and poor shooting. The Wildcats led by as much as 18 points in the first half before the Dawgs cut it to 37-28 at halftime. MSU’s back-up point guard Gary Ervin scored the final six points of the half to help close the lead to single digits.
“Ervin gave a spurt in the first half energy-wise,” said Stansbury. “He was probably the reason we were able to get it back to nine at halftime.”
In the second half, however, it was Bowers who led the Bulldog comeback. He scored 15 points, all on treys.
Roberts, who was stifled by Kentucky’s 2-3 zone for most of the game, also came alive late to score 14 points and grab 15 rebounds for yet another double double.
“We wanted to trap him when he caught the ball and I thought our players early in the game were fresh and were getting there quickly,” said Smith. “But he’s a player that figured it out and made the adjustment which is what great players do.”
Fitch led Kentucky (11-1, 2-0 SEC) with 23 points while Daniels chipped in 16 for the Wildcats, including the crucial final two. Bowers led the Bulldogs (13-1, 2-1 SEC) with 20 points.
Mississippi State will travel to Baton Rouge Saturday to take on preseason SEC West favorite LSU at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
Roberts said that the Bulldogs will be ready to play despite the tough loss.
“We’ve got a lot of veteran guys who have been through the system,” said Roberts. “I think we’re going to do a good job practicing up until the LSU game and we’ll be ready to go out there and battle again.”
Stansbury said that despite the loss, the team showed that it is truly one of the top teams in college basketball.
“Everybody wanted to know if we’re for real,” said Stansbury. “I think we proved that again tonight.”