STARKVILLE — Give a basketball team enough chances, and you’re going to pay.
Mississippi State found that out the hard way during one crucial second-half stretch Wednesday night against Kentucky at Humphrey Coliseum.
On what counted as just one possession, the Wildcats outraced the Bulldogs to a whopping five offensive rebounds. Two came on free throws. Kentucky scored four points on the minute-long possession, and it could have scored more.
The frustrating sequence put the Wildcats up 13 with under 10 minutes to go, and it was enough for Kentucky (17-9, 7-6 Southeastern Conference) to hold off Mississippi State (17-9, 5-8 SEC) by a 71-68 score in Starkville.
The Wildcats garnered 18 offensive rebounds to MSU’s seven as the Bulldogs saw their five-game winning streak snapped in a game against a fellow NCAA tournament bubble team.
“They were committed to the glass tonight, and they were really good,” Mississippi State coach Chris Jans said.
The Wildcats’ dominance on the offensive glass was capped fittingly by an offensive board by Chris Livingston off a 3-pointer with Kentucky up just two and seven seconds to play. Livingston hit both of his free throws to make it a two-possession game.
The teams alternated foul shots from there, but MSU couldn’t get a winning shot off after getting the ball back down by three with just 3.4 seconds remaining.
It was a frustrating ending to a game that saw MSU take a brief lead after trailing for nearly all of the first half. The Bulldogs led by only three points early in the second half, but momentum seemed to be on their side.
Then Kentucky went on an 18-2 run, capped by its five-point trip to take its largest lead at 56-43.
Oscar Tshiebwe made a free throw on the backbreaking possession and snuck around the Bulldogs’ ranks to put back a missed foul shot for a layup to end the trip.
Tshiebwe finished with 18 points and seven offensive rebounds, as many offensive boards as MSU did as a team.
“He’s got magnets on his hands,” MSU guard/forward Cameron Matthews said. “I don’t know how he does it. I guess it was just the physicality.”
Red-hot stretches from Tolu Smith and Dashawn Davis willed Mississippi State back into the game as MSU responded with a 9-0 run to cut the lead to four, but the Bulldogs never led again.
Kentucky went 5 of 6 from the free throw line in the final 10 seconds to close the game out.
Jans compared the Wildcats’ performance in a rowdy Humphrey Coliseum to Mississippi State’s showing Saturday in its 70-64 win over Arkansas at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville.
“They kept the crowd out of the game because of how well they played,” he said.
Cameron Matthews’ free throws with three seconds left made it a one-point game, but Tshiebwe made both at the line, and Shakeel Moore lost the ball on a tying shot attempt in the closing seconds.
Both teams shot 6 of 20 (30 percent) from 3; Mississippi State actually outshot Kentucky from the field, 50 percent to 45.5 percent.
Jans said he was happy with his team’s numbers in all but one statistical category.
“If you take out the rebounding numbers and look at everything else, I would feel pretty good about our chances — a blind stat sheet-slash-résumé,” Jans said. “But obviously, that was too much to overcome.”
The loss deals a blow to Mississippi State’s NCAA tournament chances, but the Bulldogs still have plenty of opportunities ahead.
Their next task? Taking care of business at struggling Ole Miss (10-16, 2-11 SEC) at 2:30 p.m. Saturday in Oxford.
“I think we’ll get off the mat and get after it again and put a game plan together and get ready to play on one of our rivals’ home courts,” Jans said. “We won’t have a lot of time to sit in it, if you will. We’re going to have to regroup and get ready to play another one.”
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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