Mississippi State entered Saturday’s contest with Auburn hoping to continue a streak of reaching at least .500 in Southeastern Conference play.
Instead, it was Bruce Pearl’s Auburn Tigers seizing a monumental milestone. Pearl earned his 600th career coaching victory, becoming the 21st active Division I coach to reach that mark, after his team’s 78-71 home victory against the Bulldogs.
While MSU center Abdul Ado stressed earlier in the week the team would feel a significant amount of pride should it reach .500 in league play for the fourth straight season, the loss is relatively meaningless for the Bulldogs (14-13, 8-10 SEC) from a big picture standpoint. To qualify for the NCAA tournament, MSU has to win the SEC tournament, and considering the NIT field has been slashed to 16 instead of the usual 32, the Bulldogs likely need a big SEC tournament run or a plethora of opt-outs to be considered for that tournament anyway.
After completing an 18-game conference schedule, the Bulldogs are locked into the No. 9 seed and will begin postseason play against Kentucky 11 a.m. Thursday at the SEC tournament in Nashville. MSU dropped a heartbreaker against the Wildcats in the schools’ lone meeting on Jan. 2, falling 78-73 in double overtime.
“We’re looking forward to playing in the SEC tournament as we do every year, but right now, we’re kind of licking our wounds from this one. It was tough, we had a chance to win here, no doubt, and didn’t take advantage of it. We didn’t get it done down the stretch and that’s disappointing.”
Pearl’s Tigers (13-14, 7-11), meanwhile, have played their final game considering they are ineligible for any postseason tournament. They treated the opening minutes as a 3-point contest, as a Sharife Cooper-less Auburn lineup that is undersized in comparison to MSU chucked up 14 3-pointers in the team’s first 17 shots, racing out to an early lead. The Bulldogs ended the first half on a 8-0 run, including a 3-pointer by D.J. Stewart at the buzzer that gave the Bulldogs their first lead of the game, 34-32. But the Tigers were much more efficient in the second half, converting 57 percent of their shots compared to 32 percent in the first half.
“Our defense was really subpar compared to the first half,” Howland said.
Because of a size advantage facing Auburn’s four-to-five guard lineups, 6-foot-11 forward Tolu Smith was MSU’s primary go-to option in the post. The redshirt sophomore scored a team-high 20 points and came one rebound short of a double-double. He willed himself to the free throw line, although his shooting percentage left much to be desired. Smith, coming into the game a 60 percent free throw shooter, converted 6 of 14 free throw attempts, accounting for all but one of his team’s misses at the charity stripe.
“I’ll take the blame wholeheartedly,” Smith said of the missed free throws. “Just gotta knock down those free throws.”
Auburn’s Allen Flannigan (22 points) and Jaylin Williams (18 points) combined to shoot 14-of-27 from the field to lift the Tigers to victory in the season finale. The Tigers took 33 shots from beyond the arc and converted 11 of them.
Other players finishing in double figures for MSU include D.J. Stewart (19 points, 5 rebounds) and Iverson Molinar (17 points, 5 rebounds).
Hodge is the former sports editor for The Dispatch.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 33 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 33 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
