For the second straight Saturday, Mississippi State let a game get to overtime after never trailing in regulation. And for the second straight Saturday, the Bulldogs escaped.
No. 14 MSU led at last-place South Carolina by 14 points with seven minutes remaining in regulation, then saw the Gamecocks storm back. But just like last week against Ole Miss, the Bulldogs played excellent defense in the extra five minutes and iced the game at the free throw line, earning a 65-60 victory at Colonial Life Arena.
“The end of the game took forever for everybody, and it couldn’t get over quick enough for us,” MSU head coach Chris Jans said. “It’s difficult to win on the road. I don’t care what anyone’s record is. It doesn’t matter. These athletes and these coaches, it means so much to so many, and that’s all we talked about coming in.”
The Bulldogs (16-4, 4-3 Southeastern Conference) allowed South Carolina (10-10, 0-7) to push them around on the offensive boards — the Gamecocks had a 21-9 edge in offensive rebounding and translated that into an 18-5 edge in second-chance points. That helped the hosts hang around despite shooting under 30% from the floor and a mere 4-for-20 from behind the arc.
It took nearly four minutes for South Carolina to get on the board, though the Bulldogs did give up an 9-1 run to tie the game with six minutes left in the first half. MSU closed the half with seven straight points and led 28-20 at that point despite turning the ball over nine times.
Cameron Matthews, who was held to two points in Tuesday night’s loss at No. 6 Tennessee, was scoreless Saturday and had eight turnovers in 32 minutes. RJ Melendez took just one shot, and Josh Hubbard and Claudell Harris were a combined 3-for-16 from 3-point range.
But the post duo of Michael Nwoko and KeShawn Murphy were both strong, combining for 24 points on 11-for-16 shooting. Murphy scored nine second-half points, including a floater with two minutes left for the Bulldogs’ final basket of regulation.
“Just being around the rim, soft touch around the rim and making shots that I could get off,” Murphy said. “I couldn’t get many rebounds today, but I helped around the rim.”
Murphy’s dunk gave MSU its largest lead of the game before the Gamecocks switched to a 1-3-1 zone defense that gave the Bulldogs fits. MSU missed nine of its last 11 shots in the second half and had five turnovers in the last nine minutes — three by Matthews and two by Riley Kugel.
“We prepared for it. They used that in their arsenal a lot more last year,” Jans said. “They’ve only used it less than a handful of possessions this year, but I think they felt like at that point in the game with the lead where it was, why not. And we didn’t do great. We have to execute better when people throw something at us.”
South Carolina scored eight quick points to trim the Bulldogs’ lead to six, then Jamarii Thomas answered Harris’ 3-pointer with one of his own. Thomas led all scorers with 19 points after missing his team’s last four games with an injury.
The Gamecocks tied the game inside the 30-second mark when Matthews’ pass was taken away by Zachary Davis, who took the ball in for a fast-break layup. Hubbard did not get a clean shot off ahead of the buzzer, necessitating five more minutes of basketball.
Harris’ layup in the first minute of overtime was MSU’s only field goal of the extra period, but the Bulldogs did not allow a field goal in overtime until Collin Murray-Boyles’ tip-in with one second on the clock. They were also 8-for-9 from the foul line in the extra session after going just 5-for-9 in regulation.
“(We) just stayed poised, stayed together and stuck to the script,” Melendez said. “We came here (to) get a road win and stayed strong together. We trust every single player that gets on that court.”
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