After taking No. 2 Kentucky to overtime last Tuesday, the MSU Bulldogs held off the LSU Tigers 60-59 Saturday in Baton Rouge.
Tasmin Mitchell had 25 points for LSU, but it was Mississippi State’s Phil Turner who stole the spotlight as he hit the game-winning 3-pointer with 5.8 seconds left to put the Bulldogs on top for good.
LSU head coach Trent Johnson gave the Bulldogs credit after the game.
“We had a couple of good looks for Tasmin in key situations and that didn’t go down as well. So, I don’t want to take anything away from Mississippi State, they made the plays and won the game. We didn’t,” he said.
It is often debated if a team should foul with little time left and the opposing team ahead, but, according to Johnson, that is not the case at all.
“I’ve never done that. I never will with an inexperienced team. With a minute to go, we were well aware of the situation,” he said.
According to Mitchell, the loss against the Bulldogs was one of the toughest of the season.
“We lost by one. It’s the closest we’ve ever been to a [SEC] team this whole year. That’s a good thing. We can’t look back and say we could have done this, or we could have done that. We just played a hard-fought game and lost at the end by one,” he said.
MSU relied on senior center Jarvis Varnado on the defensive end. Varnado, who is now only seven blocks away from the NCAA career blocked shots record, had seven blocked in the contest.
After a disappointing performance, mainly due to foul trouble, against Kentucky, 10 points, five rebounds, and two blocks, Varnado was in need of a big game.
“I just had to step up. I was kind of upset coming off that Kentucky loss because I was on the bench the whole second half,” he said. “I tried to come out here and give my team a spark on the defensive end.”
The win against the Tigers, coupled with a lose by Arkansas, put the Bulldogs back into a two-way tie for first place in the SEC West.
MSU head coach Rick Stansbury said he was pleased with the win, even though it was only by a small margin.
“We found a way to come out of here with a one point win, and that’s all we wanted,” he said.
So what was the key in beating the LSU Tigers? Was it ball control, rebounding or even 3-point shooting? According to Varnado, it was none of the above.
“We just wanted to come out with the same intensity and passion we came out with against Kentucky,” he said. “Coming off after that high feeling against Kentucky after almost beating them, we couldn’t afford a letdown today.”
With only four more games until SEC tournament play, MSU needs to finish strong if they wish to make it to the NCAA tournament. To date, they are four games behind SEC leader Kentucky.