Every Mississippi State basketball fan on the planet had seen this movie play out a time or two. Presented with any chance to beat Kentucky over the past 12 years, the tale always begins with an energetic MSU team racing out to a large lead. Which, of course, withers away and ends in disappointment.
It played out this way in January. It felt destined to do so again Thursday in Nashville during the teams’ first round SEC tournament meeting. Until it didn’t.
Downing Kentucky 74-73 to survive its first game of postseason play, MSU tore up the familiar script despite its best inclinations to repeat it.
The first 20 minutes saw the Bulldogs overpower an overwhelmed Wildcats frontcourt in the paint and on the boards (wait, what year is it again?) with 26 of MSU’s first 30 points coming inside. Despite deploying a roster with all the length and recruiting prowess in the world, the Wildcats had no answer to the Bulldogs’ bully ball as MSU took a 14-point halftime lead — tying a Kentucky record for largest halftime deficit at the SEC tournament. The lead eventually grew to as many as 15 in the opening minutes of the second half.
Then came the Kentucky run.
Wildcats guard Dontaie Allen, a nonfactor in almost any game this season that didn’t come against the Bulldogs, couldn’t miss. Somehow, he matched a career-high 23 points. His other 23-point outing came against — you guessed it — MSU on Jan. 2 in Kentucky’s five-point double overtime win.
“Dontaie Allen has something to do with Mississippi State,” MSU coach Ben Howland said. “I don’t know what it is. Whenever we play against Kentucky, he gets to be the best player on the court.”
The Bulldogs’ 15-point lead was erased by a Wildcat 3-point barrage and turned into a five-point deficit in the closing minutes.
Deja vu all over again.
Except, somehow, the ending changed.
Sophomore guard Iverson Molinar showcased the maturity of a cold-blooded senior in the game’s final two minutes, knocking down two contested 3-pointers off screens and sinking two crucial free throws with his team trailing by one with seven seconds remaining. Inexplicably, on the ensuing defensive possession, the Bulldogs left the hot hand, Allen, open for a clean look beyond the arc in a go-ahead attempt with 2 seconds left.
“There was a pit in my stomach,” Howland said after looking up at Allen’s game-winning attempt.
Call it the answer to the prayers Howland later admitted saying as the shot was released. Call it luck. Whatever you name it, a would-be dagger clanked harmlessly off the rim.
Senior center Abdul Ado grabbed the rebound, extending his Bulldog career at least one more day and forcing Kentucky to almost certainly miss the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2013.
“This is great,” Ado said. “I can’t put it into words how much it means to me. I was just telling Deivon (Smith) that this is the first time I’ve beaten them since I’ve been here.”
Somehow, someway, Mississippi State exorcised its well publicized demons, snapping a 15-game losing streak against the biggest boogeyman the program has known over the last decade-plus. The victory was the Bulldogs’ first over the Wildcats since 2009 and continued a streak of four consecutive opening-round SEC tournament wins for MSU.
Both Ado and Molinar were critical in snapping the skid, the former dominating the first half with a season-high 14 points, and the latter saving his team with a team-high 21 points.
“I just want to show people that I can be tough out there, I can be mentally tough at the end of the games,” Molinar said of his late-game heroics.
Kentucky ends its season at 9-16. John Calipari, who lost to the Bulldogs on Thursday for the first time since taking over the Wildcats program, will likely face the most tumultuous offseason he’s endured in recent memory.
“Our teams physically have always been roughhouse tough,” Calipari said. “This team wasn’t that way … My teams historically played like if they lost, they were going to the electric chair. This team did not.”
But none of that is Howland’s concern. What is a quandary for the Bulldogs (15-13) is somehow making it past Friday’s quarterfinal matchup with No. 1 seed Alabama. Both previous contests against the SEC champs this winter were tightly contested, single-digit MSU losses. By their standards, the Bulldogs have already pulled off one miracle in this SEC tournament. They’ll try to make it two in Friday’s 11 a.m. contest.
“We’ve got to be able to defend our tails off to give ourselves a chance,” Howland said.
Hodge is the former sports editor for The Dispatch.
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