The 2009 SEC Tournament championship game was a game befitting its stature. It had it all: clutch shots, free throws, cat-and-mouse games. It had jubilation; it had heartbreak. The final 10 seconds took what seemed like an eternity and featured multiple momentum shifts before Cameron Tatum’s last-ditch heave fell harmlessly to the floor, giving way to Mississippi State to celebrate the 64-61 victory, the tournament championship and its second straight berth in the NCAA tournament.
MSU head coach Rick Stansbury said the game did CBS a favor.
“Now that last 22 seconds, I can promise you: We didn’t lose any TV viewers, either,” he said. “But we backed in here the hard way.”
MSU sophomore guard Phil Turner led the Bulldogs, compiling a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds. His two biggest points, however, came from the free throw stripe with eight seconds left, giving State the three-point lead it eventually won by.
After 39 minutes of basketball left the two teams in a virtual deadlock, the final minute became a fitting end to a hard-fought game.
With 55 seconds left, Tennessee junior forward Wayne Chism, who led all scorers with 15 points, drained a three-pointer to put his team within a point of the Bulldogs.
Chism then fouled MSU junior Barry Stewart, putting him on the line for two shots.
To that point, Stewart was a perfect 7-of-7 from the charity stripe, but he missed his ninth, allowing Tennessee to rebound. The Vols came out of a timeout, down 62-60 with 23 seconds left, and let 11 seconds expire before calling another timeout. That’s when things got crazy.
One official whistled, stopping play for a traveling violation, which would have given the Bulldogs the ball. That call was overruled, as another official called a blocking foul on Stewart, putting J.P. Prince on the line for a one-plus-one.
Prince hit the first to pull within a point, then missed the second. The Bulldogs botched the rebound, however, fumbling the ball out of bounds.
At that point, the outlook seemed grim for State, up a point with Tennessee inbounding the ball under its own goal. UT couldn’t get the ball inbounds, however, and was whistled for a five-second violation, giving State ball possession.
State had trouble inbounding the ball, but Turner managed to bounce the ball off a UT player and out of bounds to retain possession.
After that, freshman point guard Dee Bost turned the ball over to Tennessee, giving UT new life. Immediately after, however, Bost redeemed himself by stealing the Vols’ inbounds pass and shoveling off to Turner.
Turner was fouled immediately, giving him two free throws to expand the State lead to three, the eventual final score.
Turner impacted the game not only on the offensive end, but by keeping UT junior guard Tyler Smith in check. UT head coach Bruce Pearl said he was very impressed with Turner’s play.
“I don’t know what Coach Stansbury’s press conference was like, but I guarantee you he gave Phil Turner a tremendous amount of credit for the job he did on Tyler [Smith].”
Stansbury did offer high praise for Turner, but also said guarding Smith was a team effort.
He said what Turner offers most of all is emotional leadership that the team doesn’t get as much of from its veterans.
“Jarvis [Varnado] and Stewart, they’re the nicest people you ever want to be around. They’re not going to say a whole lot,” Stansbury said. “So Phil brings that part to this team. It’s very important in practice, too, to have that kind of guy.”
Stewart and junior center Jarvis Varnado each earned spots on the SEC All-tournament team, along with Smith and Chism from UT and Korvotney Barber from Auburn.
State earned the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, its second straight berth in the Big Dance. An announcement will be made tonight at 5 p.m. CDT on the selection show, airing on ESPN.