Mississippi State sophomore guard Phil Turner turned in a career performance Wednesday, notching his third career double-double to help his Bulldogs upend South Carolina (18-6, 7-4) 75-70.
Turner’s 16 points didn’t set any records or mark his career high scoring. He didn’t lead the team in scoring. That honor belonged to sophomore guard Ravern Johnson, whose pair of free throws with three seconds to go iced the game and gave him 20 points.
What Turner did do, however, was notch career highs in rebounds (14) and steals (6), and score 10 of the biggest points in the game.
Seven of those points came after South Carolina built its biggest lead of the game, 10 points. Turner reeled off seven straight, including a longball from well beyond the arc, to trim the Gamecock lead to three.
The other three points were Turner’s last, and could not have been bigger. He sank a three-pointer with 47 seconds left to push State’s lead to 5, putting the Bulldogs in a position to win.
South Carolina head coach Darrin Horn called that shot, which capped a minute-long possession with multiple offensive rebounds, the difference in the game.
“They’re in there fighting and scratching and clawing,” Horn said, “To keep the ball alive, find a way to come up with it and hit a big three. You make that play, you deserve to win.”
Turner said after the shot fell it felt like the whole arena breathed a sigh of relief.
“Sometimes you know, and that was the nail in the coffin,” he said.
That lid was one the Bulldogs were glad to have nailed down. State entered the game on a two-game losing skid, and the team treated this game as a must-win.
“The guys came in practice these last two days like it was our last game,” Turner said.
MSU head coach Rick Stansbury said his team was sluggish in the first half and was lucky to trail by only four at halftime. He said his team was very fortunate to hit some key shots.
“It’s always important to make shots,” he said. “Tonight it was of utmost importance to give us some energy and give us some life.”
South Carolina built its first-half lead by sharing the basketball and outshooting the Bulldogs 44 percent to 35 percent. Six Gamecocks entered the scoring column before any of them hit a second field goal.
Five USC players finished with double-digit points, and the only one who separated himself from the pack was standout point guard Devan Downey, who scored 19.
Downey was a great concern for the Bulldogs defensively, as he leads the Gamecocks in scoring. Stansbury has said Downey is among the best guards in the country.
“We did about as good a job as we could do on him,” Stansbury said, adding that Downey scored his season average.
The task of defending Downey fell to freshman point guard Dee Bost, who said the thing that sticks out about Downey is his speed.
“He’s probably the quickest guard I’ve played this year,” Bost said.
Downey utilized that speed and ability to take over a game in spurts. At one point he scored five straight points in less than 20 seconds.
Downey’s quickness was most evident in the few minutes Bost spent resting on the bench, when he made more of an effort to push in transition.
“He was just trying to take advantage of our second group in there but they did an OK job of slowing him down,” Bost said.
With the win, MSU pulled even with USC, Florida, Tennessee and Kentucky in a five-way log jam for second in the SEC behind LSU, which has won 10 straight conference games since opening league play with a loss to Alabama. The Tigers are two wins away from clinching a share of the SEC overall title.
The Bulldogs now look to Tuscaloosa, where they travel to play Alabama Saturday.
State defeated the Crimson Tide 83-74 in Starkville Jan. 14, marking the fifth straight MSU victory in the series.
Alabama (13-12, 3-8) fired 11th-year head coach Mark Gottfried earlier this year.
Since then, the Tide is 1-5, including four straight losses.