The Ole Miss Rebels came into The Hump looking to begin a new streak, but that turned out to be nothing but wishful thinking.
Fueled by a hot crowd and even hotter shooting, the Mississippi State Bulldogs wrote the most decisive chapter in the long-standing series’ recent history, pounding the Rebels 84-55 Saturday.
The 29-point dismantling, the largest margin of victory since the 1994-95 season, avenged a Jan. 14 loss to the Rebels in Oxford, which snapped an eight-game winning streak by the Bulldogs over their in-state rivals. But that was against a very different State team.
“I’ve been saying over the past several weeks that I thought our team was getting better even though it hasn’t shown on the W’s and L’s,” head coach Rick Stansbury said. “We’ve had some road games, we’ve had bad stretches, but I saw a lot of positive things in those games. Tonight, we put together a total team effort offensively and defensively.”
MSU (13-12, 3-9 SEC) shot 54 percent from the field and 47 percent from downtown, both season bests in league play, while holding the Rebels to just 34 percent for the game, which was academic shortly after halftime.
“We beat the crap out of Ole Miss,” said Charles Rhodes, who scored 15 points and provided a great deal of emotional leadership during a decisive second-half run.
Ole Miss (14-11, 4-8) took a 19-17 advantage after a fast break dunk by Londrick Nolen, whose post-basket yell was met with disapproval from nearby State fans.
“They were talking so much on the court,” said Bulldogs guard Dietric Slater, who had 16 points. “They were like, ‘You’re going to lose. It’s going to be like last time.’ We didn’t quite think it was going to be like that. But we didn’t want to tell them, we wanted to show them.”
A jump shot by Rebel center Dwayne Curtis tied the game at 22 and likely marked the last thing Ole Miss cares to remember about the contest.
The Bulldogs took command with a 12-0 run that, remarkably, was made with Rhodes on the bench with foul trouble. Wesley Morgan entered the game in his stead, forcing Curtis into three consecutive turnovers.
The Rebels cut the deficit to nine shortly after halftime, when Todd Abernethy’s three-pointer made the score 38-29, but the Bulldogs would only pile on from there.
A three-point answer from Reginald Delk sparked a 27-3 run that essentially ended the game.
“I’ve just been trying to shoot a little more and drive a little more,” said Delk, who finished with 16 points and shot 5-6 from three-point range. “Everyone was hot, and everyone was contributing. That’s why I thought we got the big win.”
Delk canned another three following a Slater jumper, bringing the lead to 19 and dialed long distance yet again less than a minute later to whip the crowd into a frenzy.
“I’ve always said in order for us to beat some good teams, those two guys (Slater and Delk) need to score for us,” Stansbury said. “When those two guys can give us eight or nine points, it makes us better. If we can get 16 out of them, then what happened today may happen again.”
After a thunderous dunk on Rebel forward Bam Doyne, Rhodes sounded a mighty yawp and drew a technical foul, a call that went largely unnoticed by MSU fans, who were celebrating both the slam and a 33-point lead.
That same emotion caused Stansbury to cut out a portion of practice Friday.
“We came out to practice, and we basically had to cut some things out because of the team’s energy,” Stansbury said. “For our kids to have the attitude and energy after losing some games when they’re not used to it, it tells you a lot about the make-up of this basketball team. They’ve continued to work hard, and good things happen to them.”
Further displaying its hard work, MSU outrebounded Ole Miss 42-28 and had a career-high 13 boards from Slater.
Gordon contributed offensively with a game-high 17 points, eight rebounds and four assists, combined with only one turnover, but he also shut down Abernethy, who had just three points after scoring 22 in the previous meeting.
The teams wore retro uniforms as part of Throwback Week. Ole Miss wore blue replicas of its uniform from 1978-92, while the Bulldogs’ whites were from the late 1960s and early 1970s.