STARKVILLE — Wide open in the left corner, Rocket Watts watched as his 3-pointer spiraled around the rim and started to go down before hopping abruptly out of the basket.

Watts and Mississippi State trailed No. 24 Alabama by just three points a few minutes into the second half Saturday at Humphrey Coliseum. Had his shot gone down, it would have tied the game.

But as it turned out, Watts didn’t have to worry. Iverson Molinar and the rest of the Bulldogs had his back.

Less than 40 seconds later, Molinar knocked down a tying 3 from almost exactly the same spot.

And Mississippi State refused to go away.

The Bulldogs (12-4, 3-1 Southeastern Conference) pulled ahead for good late and held on for a 78-76 win over the Crimson Tide (11-6, 2-3) on Saturday in Starkville.

“We just needed to come out there and play as hard as we could, and I feel like we did that on both ends of the floor tonight,” Molinar said.

Mississippi State never trailed by more than five points, giving Alabama all it could handle and then some as the Tide lost their third straight game. Molinar led the Bulldogs with 24 points after scoring a career-high 28 on Wednesday against Georgia.

But it wasn’t all his doing as MSU posted its second straight win since a loss to Ole Miss on Jan. 8. Garrison Brooks added 16 points and 10 rebounds, and Shakeel Moore had 15 on 9-of-9 shooting from the foul line.

Shot attempts at the charity stripe defined Saturday evening’s game as whistles sounded constantly, hampering the pace between the two teams. Mississippi State was called for 21 fouls, and Alabama was called for 26; the two combined to take an unsightly 66 free throws.

The Bulldogs, the top-ranked foul shooting team in the SEC, made 28 of their 38 attempts — 73.7 percent compared to their normal 73.4 percent mark.

MSU sealed the game at the free throw line, albeit not in perfect fashion. Molinar said the Tide chose to foul Andersson García off the ball with 3.7 seconds left and the Bulldogs up by a point.

But García hit one of his two attempts, and Alabama’s Keon Ellis hoisted up a deep, contested 3 that drew iron as the buzzer sounded.

“It didn’t work,” Molinar said of Alabama’s choice to put García on the line. “We still executed.”

That was true for the Bulldogs in nearly every facet Saturday, except for one. MSU shot just 2 of 16 from 3 as D.J. Jeffries was the only player besides Molinar to knock down a triple.

Molinar said the Bulldogs were “overaggressive” at both ends of the court, but sometimes, it paid off. MSU forced 15 turnovers and kept Alabama to 39.3 percent shooting from the field and 27.6 percent from deep.

“Those are outstanding numbers,” coach Ben Howland said.

The Bulldogs pulled down a season-high 18 offensive rebounds and limited Alabama to 13, scoring 21 second-chance points.

Still, they trailed at the half as the Crimson Tide knocked down six straight free throws to put themselves in the lead. A Jahvon Quinerly layup before the break made it 41-37 at halftime.

Then Jeffries’ 3 a few minutes into the second half put MSU on top and energized a season-high Humphrey Coliseum crowd. A total of 8,090 fans watched the Bulldogs attempt to topple the Tide, and they got their money’s worth.

Brooks said the atmosphere felt like when he attended Mississippi State games as a child, and his teammates and coaches echoed the sentiment.

“I’m so thankful and so happy for the way the fans got behind our team today,” Howland said.

Forward Tolu Smith returned to the lineup after missing the past two games because of COVID-19 protocols, but he was mostly ineffective in 20 minutes played. Smith fouled out with 5:58 remaining after scoring six points and taking home four rebounds on 2-of-6 shooting.

But with the way the rest of the Bulldogs played Saturday, Smith’s off night didn’t matter.

After its second straight win, Mississippi State will travel to Florida (10-6, 1-3 SEC) at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, hoping to build off their biggest victory of the season.

“This was a huge win for us in terms of putting together the NCAA résumé that we’re trying to do so we can get into the tournament,” Howland said.

Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.