Mississippi State coach Ben Howland called it a gift from the almighty. D.J. Stewart just summed it up as a guy wanting to make a play.
Whatever the case, an off-balance, semi awkward-looking shot in the final seconds of Thursday’s NIT quarterfinal resulted in the standout guard becoming the hero Mississippi State needed in its 68-67 NIT victory over Richmond in Denton, Texas.
Capitalizing off a miss by Richmond’s Andre Gustavson on the front end of a one-and-one with 8 seconds remaining, MSU forward Quentin Post secured the rebound and went to work with the Bulldogs trailing by two. Post quickly threw a pass to Stewart, who caught the ball and dribbled six steps to the left side of the court beyond the arc. From the baseline, Howland screamed, “Shoot the three! Shoot the three!”
“I was yelling at the top of my lungs hoping he’d hear me,” Howland said. “We don’t need a tie. We need the win.”
Pulling up for a shot that later required a slight adjustment of his angle after Richmond’s Souleymane Koureissi put a hand in Stewart’s face, the standout MSU guard heeded his coach’s advice.
“I chose to go for the win,” Stewart said of the clutch shot. “It went through.”
It was a fitting end to a contest to which Stewart contributed a game-high 22 points, including making 10 of 10 free throws. The Grace native picked up his teammate Abdul Ado in the process after Ado missed a pair of charity stripe attempts 11 seconds earlier that would have tied the game if he converted both. Ado, a senior, fouled out three seconds after his second miss when he intentionally fouled Gustavson that led to a soon-to-be ill-fated one-and-one attempt. Ironically, despite free throws generally being a detriment to MSU for the majority of the 2020-2021 season, Ado’s misses were the first the Bulldogs had all night. MSU converted 16 of 18 free throws, while Richmond missed nine free throws in 23 attempts.
“Coach Howland is on us on free throws,” Stewart said, who had all 10 of his charity stripe attempts come in the second half. “We practice them so much it’s almost secondhand now. It was a big part of the half, and I was able to step up and knock them down.”
The Bulldogs had a 39-23 advantage on the boards despite missing the Southeastern Conference’s leading rebounder, Tolu Smith, who was unavailable Thursday because of the tournament’s COVID-19 contact tracing protocols. Because Smith has tested negative for COVID-19 the last few days, Howland said his status is unknown for the rest of the NIT. That didn’t stop MSU from making him feel like he was part of the victory.
“Right after the game, I called him from the locker room and put the whole team on speaker,” Howland said. “We love him very much, and we feel for him so badly he can’t be here right now.”
Richmond was also shorthanded, as the Spiders’ two leading scorers Blake Francis and Grant Golden were held out of the contest. Earlier in the week, Howland noted both Richmond scorers were day to day. Jacob Gilyard led the Spiders with 22 points, including five made 3-pointers. Molinar was the only other Bulldog in double figures with 18 points, 16 of which came in the first half.
With the win, MSU (17-14) advances to its third NIT Final Four in team history, where it will face either Louisiana Tech or Western Kentucky at 2 p.m. Saturday. Should the Bulldogs draw the Hilltoppers, a salivating matchup with former coach Rick Stansbury would be on the table.
“We have a day off to rest and prepare for whoever we get,” Howland said.
While the first two rounds of the NIT were single elimination, the Bulldogs are guaranteed two more contests even if they lose Saturday’s contest. Should it fall to either WKU or Louisiana Tech, MSU would play in Sunday’s third-place game.
The Bulldogs emerged from their region despite being the lowest-seeded team, opening the NIT with a victory over Saint Louis on Saturday.
Hodge is the former sports editor for The Dispatch.
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