Mississippi State learned what it can do Wednesday night in a brutally close 67-70 loss to No. 1 Florida in front of 10,338 white-clad fans at Humphrey Coliseum.”We didn’t win the basketball game, but I couldn’t have been more proud of our effort,” MSU head coach Rick Stansbury said. “You’d like to make one more play here or there, but give Florida credit. That’s why they’re the best team in America.”
With just under four minutes left in the second half, the Bulldogs (11-7, 2-3) had played the top-ranked Gators (18-2, 5-0) to a 62-62 tie.
Junior Charles Rhodes had just tied the game on two foul shots that capped a 9-0 Bulldog run.
The atmosphere was energetic as the Gators took the ball down the court, but they used the full shot clock and finally found Taurean Green open in the left corner to hit open 3-pointer.
“That was a big shot for them,” point guard Jamont Gordon said. “We were in a zone and they ran a play to get him an open shot. He wasn’t anyone’s man, they just ran a play for him.”
“That’s what great players do,” Stansbury said. “Him making that shot is not a surprise.”
The Bulldogs had a chance to send the game into overtime, down by three with the ball and 17 seconds on the clock, but Florida’s defense suffocated freshman Barry Stewart and forced him to dump the ball underneath for a Gordon layup.
“They were denying on the outside,” Gordon said. “We were trying to run a play, but they were denying everything. We just ran the clock down and then had to force something up. I just had to make sure I made it and try to draw a foul.”
Stansbury said after the game that the play was designed for Stewart to take the shot, but the freshman was just too timid at the moment of decision.
“I was looking for ‘Stu’ off a double screen to knock down a three,” he said. “They extended of it pretty good, and I wish he’d have been a little more aggressive. But he saw Jamont open, and his instincts just went for that two [points].”
“They came with a play and we happened to guard it fairly decent,” Florida head coach Billy Donovan said. “We just didn’t let them get it off.”
State fouled the Gators with 3.1 seconds left and after Green hit the two free shots, the Bulldogs had one last chance to try to hit a game-tying 3-pointer.
Florida’s full-court defense held, though, and freshman guard Ben Hansbrough could not even get in position to take a final shot.
“It’s disappointing not to have a chance to win, not to get a shot off and maybe go into overtime,” Stewart said. It’s just disappointing.”
“We have nothing to be ashamed of,” Stansbury said. “That doesn’t mean we played perfect, but we absolutely left everything out on the floor. As a coach that’s all you can ask.”
Gordon paced the Bulldogs in scoring with 17, while Stewart added 16 point on 5 of 9 shooting. Stewart also had a game-high three 3-pointers.
“They’re a hard team to guard,” Donovan said. “If you look at them, they’ve been in every single game they’ve played, home or away. They’re going to cause teams problems in this league at home and on the road, and it’s pretty scary that they’ve got all those kids coming back.”
Florida guard Corey Brewer was the game’s leading scorer with 20. He averaged less than 12.8 per game coming into the contest.
“I thought Corey’s energy took our team to a different level,” Donovan said. “He knocked down some big shots and got some big rebounds.”
The Bulldogs led 33-29 at the half, but came out flat in the second half and were losing by the 15 minute mark.
Florida played aggressively and forced the Bulldogs to commit careless fouls in the low post to avoid layups.
“They got us into foul trouble early in the second half, and I thought that dictated a lot about the way the game was played,” Stansbury said. “It forced us not to play big as much as we like to.”
Vernon Goodrich fouled out with 17:27 to go in the second half, and down the stretch Stansbury was forced to go with a lineup that included Gordon, Rhodes and Dietric Slater, all playing with four fouls.
“It was real hard to guard those big guys,” Slater said. “We’ve just got to make sure our big guys play smarter and stay in the game longer.”
Though obviously distressed with the outcome of the game, the Bulldogs seemed to see their elevated play as a huge positive moving forward.
“We don’t never die,” Stewart said. “You can tell we’re getting a little more experience. We’re not getting down on ourselves when we get behind late in the game.