STARKVILLE – Mississippi State forward Amier Ali had only made two shots in three games of his career as a Bulldog when he checked into the game against New Orleans on Monday. In Fact, Ali had only played a total of 28 minutes in three appearances through MSU’s first five games of the season, but he made every one of his 22 minutes count against the Privateers, especially the three overtime minutes.
And the Bulldogs needed it. They had overcome a 13-point deficit in the final five minutes of regulation and forced overtime thanks to a four-point play from Josh Hubbard and a Shawn Jones Jr. free throw with just 3.8 seconds on the clock. With the Privateers matching the Bulldogs in overtime, Ali stepped up again as the seconds ticked away.
He found himselves at the top of the key and running out of time and options as his target, Hubbard, was double-teamed. Amid the frantic shifting of defenders and teammates, Ali heard his coach calling for a flat ball screen. The space opened up to launch a three-point attempt off the dribble, and he banked it in with 1.9 seconds left in the game.
“It felt like when you were a kid thinking ‘3-2-1…’ on the playground, and I was just in an empty gym,” Ali said of the moment. “I shot it and made it.”
The Bulldogs (3-3) won 81-78 in overtime, a much-needed recovery after two deflating losses at the Hall of Fame Classic in Kansas City. It took a true show of strength from a group that had shown very little by way of cohesion or consistency from opening night through the final minutes of the second half, and it led to a memorable ending which the players hope to build on.
Hubbard led the way on the scoresheet with 28 points, shooting 9-21 with five makes from beyond the arc. It was a credit to Ali’s clutch moment that none of Hubbard’s stunning triples in the second half became the defining play of the game, but his make on a four-point play in the final seconds certainly was a spark that got the crowd into a frenzy when they were needed most. The team that had barely looked like a unit all season was finally coming together.
“To me, it was great because I could really see our togetherness,” Ali said of the comeback. “We always have togetherness, but it was a new level. We’re getting better every day, getting acclimated with each other, but I love to see that. We were all together, never too high, never too low. We try to be that and it showed. We were down, came back, even-keeled it and came out victorious.”
“Certainly, when we were down 13 with five and some change left, the building wasn’t jazzed up and deservedly so,” Jans said, reflecting on the final push. “It didn’t look good, but what I’m most proud of is that we kept fighting. Those kids kept fighting, and we got a little bit of momentum. The huddles picked up, the crowd picked up. I thought those that were there really helped us the last couple minutes of the game, and then even in overtime it felt like it was double the actual people in the arena because how loud they were.”
Ali and Ja’Borri McGhee both finished with 16 points in the contest, with the former adding four rebounds and the latter providing five assists. They both saw extra minutes with Jayden Epps and Sergej Macura sidelined with injuries, but were crucial members of the core group that sparked the turnaround.
For McGhee, the surge was what he was hoping the team could discover. He remarked that the team had taken on Jans’ comments about playing with the intensity that they practice with, and after three difficult losses, they needed a boost from within.
“This is probably the nicest group I’ve been around, but I think we’ve got to hold each other accountable more,” McGhee said. “I feel like on the court some nights, Coach Jans is coaching us hard, and we get timid, playing on our heels. And as a senior, I feel like some nights we play to lose instead of going out there with no nervousness, just ready to play our all no matter what happens. The moment we figure that out, I think we’re going to turn this around and be one of the best teams in the country.”
Jans had spent much of the night pacing the sideline and shouting at his guys. Sometimes it was instruction, sometimes it was an attempt to light a fire, and other times, he may not have been aware of how loud he really was with certain comments. He was certainly involved and feeling out the game along with his team, and even for all the negatives in the game, he got to see his team pull itself together and save themselves from another disappointment.
“Coming off the Kansas City weekend, I didn’t know exactly where we’d be, because that’s just the way it goes sometimes,” he said. “I thought the start of the game, pretty good, then it wasn’t for a long stretch. I mean, if we can hold our hat on anything, it’s that there was zero quit in them, zero splintering. There was a lot of energy in the huddles, a lot of encouragement with one another, and at the end of the day just found a way to get themselves back in the game.”
The Bulldogs are back in action against SMU at The Hump on Black Friday at 6 p.m.
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