STARKVILLE — With football coach Dan Mullen in the stands, Mississippi State University senior point guard Dee Bost showcased his vertical passing abilities.
After Bost hit back-to-back 3-pointers to help the Bulldogs take the lead back, MSU had 94 feet to maneuver with 3.4 seconds left.
Bost unleashed a football pass underneath the University of Alabama’s basket that replicated a perfect football wheel route to senior guard Brian Bryant, who caught the pass in stride at halfcourt and went in for the game’s final basket and was fouled to lift No. 20 MSU to a 56-52 victory Saturday afternoon at Humphrey Coliseum.
“I told Bryant in the huddle go long,” Bost said. “Coach told us to go to (MSU junior forward) Arnett (Moultrie), but I figured if I throw it in the backcourt they wouldn’t have enough time to get a shot off.”
Bost, who passed for 2,958 yards in his final season as a quarterback at Concord (N.C.) High School, had 17 points and four assists in 34 minutes.
“I put some touch on it,” Bost said with a smile when asked about the pass. “I didn’t want to throw it too short, and (Bryant) created space between him and the defender.”
Mullen and assistant coaches Geoff Collins and Angelo Mirando were at the game with a number of recruits on one of MSU’s official visit weekend before National Signing Day on Feb. 1.
The pass from Bost, which had an announced attendance of 8,730 on its feet, spotlighted his recognition of time and score in a pressure situation and showed he is someone MSU coach Rick Stansbury trusts to make a good decision every time.
“We wanted our best passer taking the ball out in that situation,” Stansbury said.
Bost’s 3-pointers stopped a streak of 14 straight misses from beyond the arc that allowed Alabama (13-4, 2-1 Southeastern Conference) to sink back in a 1-3-1 zone defense that dared the Bulldogs (15-3, 2-1) to shoot from the perimeter.
Alabama used the zone to try to stop junior forward Arnett Moultrie. The transfer from the University of Texas at El Paso was the most dominant post player of the four front-court standouts featured in the game. Moultrie had 25 points and 13 rebounds in 34 minutes for his ninth double-double of the season, which ties him for the conference lead with the University of Kentucky’s Anthony Davis.
Alabama used three defenders on the 6-foot-11 power forward, and none of the worked.
“Arnett was a man today,” Stansbury said. “We were very conscious to get him the ball all day.”
Moultrie had 14 straight points from the 4-minute, 35-second mark of the first half until the 17:45 mark in the second half. He became the first MSU player since Charles Rhodes in 2007-08 to register two games of 25-plus points and at least 10 rebounds in a season.
“He was really active and with his length at 6-foot-11, and that is really tough for us to deal with,” Alabama junior guard Andrew Steele said.
Moultrie said he was focused on rebounding after being limited to four Thursday night in a 62-58 victory against the University of Tennessee.
“I just wanted to come out and have an impressive rebounding game (because) last game I had four … which should almost never happen,” Moultrie said.
Alabama countered Moultrie with JaMychal Green and Tony Mitchell, but the length of Moultrie and the size of Renardo Sidney kept them off balance. Neither of the front-court players received help from the perimeter, as the Crimson Tide were 1-for-9 from 3-point range.
“You have to understand this is life in the SEC,” Alabama coach Anthony Grant said. “We have battles like this. … We had opportunities, and it’s an opportunity for us to learn.”
MSU’s victory leaves Kentucky and Vanderbilt as the only unbeaten teams left in the SEC.
MSU will travel next week to play at the University of Mississippi and at Vanderbilt.
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