The Florida Gators learned a hard lesson Friday night – never attack a cornered man.
Mississippi State had to beat the Gators to have any chance of an NCAA Tournament berth, and they did just that with a 75-69 win in Nashville at the SEC Tournament.
Bulldog head coach Rick Stansbury, said one of the most important factors was the hot shooting by the Dawgs.
“When you’re efficient offensively . it gives you a chance to win,” he said.
MSU was red hot on the offensive side of the ball, connecting on 28-49 field goal attempts (57.1 percent) and 10-20 3-pointers (50 percent).
Florida heach coach Billy Donovan said the shooting from beyond the arc, particularly early on, is what did it for the Dawgs.
“I really think when you allow a team like that who can shoot threes to get off to a good start shooting the ball, very tough shots become easy shots,” he said. “I thought once the game started they were really excited to play. They jumped on us early.”
A catalyst off the bench for the Bulldogs, Romero Osby scored eight points and blocked one shot in only 13 minutes of play.
Senior Barry Stewart said it was an impact they knew they would need.
“Romero was big for us,” he said. “If we get that play out of romero we’re hard to beat. We knew that was something we needed coming in to the tournament, not just from Romero but all the bench.”
Stewart himself had an impressive night, as he led the team in scoring with 17 points, also chipping in three rebounds. He connected on 6 out of 7 free throws, including four straight in the final minute when MSU needed it the most.
Stewart said he credits the high energy to all of his teammates.
“This is a new season,” he said. “We’re competing for a championship. The energy came from the whole team, and not just the guys on the court.”
The most important part of the win for the Bulldogs is keeping their NCAA Tournament chances alive, for at least one more day.
Stansbury said he tries not to think about it, but there is nothing he can do to keep his team from talking about the possibility.
“It’s impossible to keep them [NCAA thoughts] away unless I lock them in a closet and take their phones away,” he said.
Whatever the team talked about before hand, it seemed to do the trick as the Bulldogs had a team effort with five different players scoring in double figures, and Osby right behind them with eight.
Varnado said playing like a team is what got them here and what could get them a championship.
“We had success last year playing together,” he said. “We ain’t the deepest team, but we’re gonna fight hard and play hard like we did tonight.”
Varnado, who scored 15 points and blocked four shots, will get his chance to play hard again Saturday afternoon when MSU takes on the winner of Vanderbilt/Georgia in the semi-finals of the SEC Tournament.