With first place in the SEC on the line, Mississippi State (16-8,6-3 SEC) battled LSU (20-4, 8-1) to the wire. Then they did it twice more, ultimately falling 97-94 in double overtime.
An emotionally drained LSU head coach Trent Johnson praised both teams’ efforts after the game.
“That’s a basketball game unfortunately someone had to lose,” Johnson said. “It just appears that we [LSU] were fortunate enough to make some plays at crucial times down the stretch.”
The Tigers were led offensively and defensively by junior forward Tasmin Mitchell, who scored a game-high 41 points.
MSU junior center Jarvis Varnado, who added a career-high 31 of his own, called Mitchell the front runner for SEC Player of the Year.
“[Mitchell’s] just a smart player who knows how to use his body to score,” he said. “He killed us tonight.”
The Tigers utilized a tough man defense, closely guarding MSU’s perimeter players. That opened the door for the Bulldogs to attack the paint. In the first half, State scored 12 of its 26 points from the paint, including six by senior Brian Johnson, who led the team with seven first half points.
The two teams battled closely for the first 10 minutes with three ties and six lead changes. The last came with 10:07 left in the half on a Mitchell three-pointer that sparked a 9-0 Tiger run to give LSU a 25-18 lead.
The Bulldogs would get no closer before halftime, hitting the locker room with a 31-26 deficit.
In the second half, the Bulldogs gradually closed the gap. State had several chances to tie or take the lead, but each time the Tigers answered. The Bulldogs tied the game five times in the second half and didn’t manage to take
the lead on any of them.
In the final seconds of regulation, after Varnado tied the game with a 1-of-2 trip to the free throw line, sophomore guard Phil Turner grabbed a defensive rebound after a missed Garrett Temple layup.
Out of a timeout, MSU got the ball to Varnado, its best free throw shooter, who bounced a half-court desperation attempt off the shot clock as time expired.
MSU head coach Rick Stansbury was then issued a technical foul for pleading his case that Varnado was fouled on the shot, allowing senior guard Marcus Thornton to give LSU the lead before any time ticked off the overtime clock.
On the Bulldogs’ first possession, Varnado hit a pair of free throws to give State its first lead since the 10:19 mark of the first half.
The Tigers quickly answered, continuing the trend of forcing the Bulldogs to play from behind. The Tiger lead fluctuated between one and three points until, with 46 seconds left, junior Barry Stewart hit a lay-in to tie the game at 82. The Bulldogs would have a pair of opportunities to win inside of five seconds remaining, when freshman Dee Bost missed a layup and Johnson missed a put-back as time expired.
The pair of point-blank misses illustrated a common theme for the Bulldogs, who missed 20 close-range shots in the game, including four layups.
Much of the Bulldogs’ shooting woes down low can be attributed to the Tiger defense, which made a point of fouling every time State got the ball in the paint. That practice ultimately caused LSU to foul out four players and saw MSU attempt 52 free throws. Luckily for the Bulldogs, they hit 78.8 percent of their free throws, partly making up for shooting 31.2 percent from the field and an ice-cold 20.8 percent from beyond the arc.
In the decisive second OT period, the Tigers managed to separate themselves from the Bulldogs, who only made two field goals in the last frame. The Tigers built a seven point lead with 1:28 to play, only to see it evaporate in the next 36 seconds when Bost hit a three pointer to tie the game at 93.
Trent Johnson said every time LSU gained a lead, he knew it wasn’t over.
“[MSU] never lost confidence,” he said. “You’d look at Mississippi State and you could see it in their eyes that they were coming.”
From that point, Mitchell drove to the rim and scored, adding a free throw shot to give the Tigers the lead. It was only appropriate that Mitchell’s final shot be the one that sank the Bulldogs after he poured in 41.
Stewart, who sank a perfect 8-8 from the free throw line and added a clutch bucket, said his teammates can hold their heads high despite the loss.
“We know as a group that we gave it our all. Nobody folded, nobody gave up,” he said.
Stansbury agreed, saying his team had just battled the best team in the conference.
“We left our hearts and souls and guts on that floor tonight,” Stansbury said. “This is just a tough test for this team again. Every time we’ve had a loss, we’ve come back with a win.
The Bulldogs, who now trail LSU by two games in the division and overall SEC races, hit the road to play Auburn Saturday at 4 p.m.