STARKVILLE — Bodies were diving on the floor amidst a mad scramble for the ball, and with Mississippi State out of sync, Ole Miss guard Sean Pedulla gained control and found a streaking Matthew Murrell breaking away toward the basket.
The Bulldogs were already in hot water for letting Saturday’s game, in which they never trailed during regulation, reach overtime in the first place. But with MSU down by one, RJ Melendez chased down Murrell and blocked the fast-break layup, pinning the ball against the backboard like LeBron James in the 2016 NBA Finals.
KeShawn Murphy came down with the rebound and the Bulldogs had numbers. Murphy kicked a pass out to Josh Hubbard near midcourt, and Hubbard fired an outlet pass to Cameron Matthews, who knew he did not have the angle to lay it up and in. So he one-timed the ball to the corner, where Riley Kugel had snuck out wide open with enough time to gather the ball in, set his feet and shoot the 3-pointer.
Swish.
The sequence will go down in MSU lore as one of the signature moments in the Bulldogs-Rebels rivalry. With the Magnolia State foes meeting as ranked teams for the first time ever, MSU used that Kugel 3-pointer to pull ahead for good in a riveting 84-81 victory at Humphrey Coliseum.
“There were a lot of big plays, but that was by far the play of the game,” Bulldogs head coach Chris Jans said. “If that doesn’t happen and they lay it in, who knows? That’s how it works. There are always pivotal plays as you look back. You’re not sure when they’re going to happen, but that certainly was a big one.”
No. 15 MSU (15-3, 3-2 Southeastern Conference) got off to a near-perfect start, scoring the game’s first 11 points and giving No. 21 Ole Miss (15-3, 4-1) a beating on the boards. The Bulldogs grabbed four offensive rebounds in the first two minutes and hardly looked back, out-rebounding the Rebels 51-29 overall and 19-8 on the offensive glass.
Matthews had his second double-double in three games with 10 points and 11 boards to go along with four steals. Murphy had six huge second-chance points in the second half as part of an 18-point, 11-rebound effort. MSU held the Rebels’ leading rebounder, Malik Dia, to just two rebounds in 18 minutes.
“Jans told us it was going to be a tough matchup because Dia, their (post player), was a good offensive rebounder,” Murphy said. “Going into this game, I knew I had to step and be an offensive rebounder and check on both sides. We emphasized that a lot and got it done.”
The Bulldogs led by 14 with a minute left before halftime, but Ole Miss closed the half with back-to-back 3-pointers, then quickly trimmed the deficit to one after four minutes in the second half. Murrell spent most of the first half on the bench with two early fouls but scored 15 second-half points, eight of which came in those first four minutes.
The Rebels could never quite pull even, although MSU made its share of mistakes. Matthews grabbed a rebound with the Bulldogs up four and a minute and a half remaining, but instead of milking clock, he threw an ill-advised full-court pass for Murphy that sailed out of bounds.
Murrell tied the game on a 3-pointer over Matthews in the final 10 seconds, and Jans elected not to use one of his three timeouts. Kugel’s step-back 3-pointer for the win rimmed out, necessitating five more minutes of basketball.
“Hindsight is 20/20, and certainly I wish I would have (taken a timeout). Over my experience, you just get more out of getting the ball out of the net and pushing it when it’s that kind of time left in the game,” Jans said. “We had the ball in a playmaker’s hand, and we just didn’t get as good a shot as we would have liked.”
Ole Miss took its first lead of the game on Jaemyn Brakefield’s dunk a minute into overtime, but MSU never trailed again after Kugel’s clutch 3-pointer. The Bulldogs led by five in the final seconds when Shawn Jones Jr. committed a flagrant foul wrapping his arms around Brakefield, who hit both free throws to make it a one-score game again. But Matthews defended Brakefield well on the final possession, and his 3-point attempt came up well short.
Kugel, who missed Tuesday night’s loss at Auburn with an injury, led all scorers with 21 points. The in-state rivals will meet again in four weeks, on Feb. 15 at Oxford’s SJB Pavilion.
“It felt amazing,” Kugel said. “It was loud as hell. It was fun. I’m glad I was out there with the guys. I can’t wait to play over there (in Oxford).”
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