Charles Rhodes accepted a long pass on the Mississippi State offensive end of the court and emphatically slammed it through the basket as the closing seconds of the first half ticked off the clock in Saturday night’s game against Auburn.The dunk put an exclamation mark on a stellar first half showing by the Bulldogs and gave them a 15-point lead as they went into halftime.
Mississippi State (16-7, 7-2 SEC) never relinquished that lead and continued its relentless attack on a small and shallow Auburn line-up in its 83-64 thrashing of the Tigers (12-10, 2-7 SEC) at Beard-Eaves Memorial Coliseum. Mississippi State head coach Rick Stansbury was quick to comment on his team’s efficiency.
“Tonight, we just played tough and executed our game plan as well as we possibly could,” he said.
It’s unknown if the Bulldogs could have scripted a better way to implement that game plan than the way they did during Saturday’s contest, particularly at the start.
The Bulldogs dominated the contest from the beginning by jumping out to a 10-0 run within the first two minutes of tip-off. They were 4-for-4 during that stretch, which was capped off by a 3-pointer from Ben Hansbrough.
He connected on two of his game-high four 3-pointers in the first five minutes.
Senior forward Charles Rhodes credited the win to a hard-fought offensive and defensive effort.
“We just went out and worked hard,” Rhodes said. “We were getting a lot of rebounds which led to a lot of points and easy kick-out passes. Then when we got down on defense we didn’t let up and blocked or contested every shot.”
But Hansbrough’s outside jump shots were essentially the only long shots by the Bulldogs during the early stages of the game.
Instead, they concentrated on taking shots near the goal so they could force the Tigers to make some early fouls.
“The difference was that our guys did exactly what we wanted them to do,” Stansbury said in a post-game radio interview. “We got the ball inside early, and we got them into some foul trouble.”
Fouls wreaked havoc on the guard-heavy, shallow Auburn bench, which was forced to dig even deeper on its bench than it was accustomed to. It didn’t take long for Mississippi State to take advantage of the lack of size from the Auburn team.
The Bulldogs gathered 18 more rebounds than their opponents during the first half, and those additional rebounds were a primary factor in Mississippi State’s dominance.
“Rebounding was one of our game plans for the game,” Stansbury said. “We knew we would have to out-rebound them to win.”
The Bulldogs, utilizing their highly regarded defense, also held the Tigers to 33.8 percent shooting on 23-of-68 from the field. But they didn’t rest solely on their defense in this one.
They shot 52.1 percent from the field and 43.5 percent from behind the 3-point line.
Hansbrough contributed the largest portion of the 3-point chunk by sinking four long-range shots and finished the game with 20 points.
Rhodes and junior point guard Jamont Gordon each chipped in with double-double performances. Rhodes scored 17 points and gathered 10 boards for his seventh double-double of the season. Gordon earned his third double-double of the season with 24 points, including three 3-pointers, and 13 rebounds.
“Jamont Gordon was terrific,” Auburn head coach Jeff Lebo said. “He just dominates the game for their team. When he starts making threes, you cannot guard him. No one can.