STARKVILLE — Mississippi State men’s basketball coach Rick Ray hopes he can maintain the team’s recruiting pipeline from Montgomery Carver High School.
Craig Sword and Roquez Johnson combined for 44 points and played a huge role in MSU’s offensive efficiency Sunday in a 65-64 overtime victory against Loyola-Chicago at Humphrey Coliseum in a 50th-anniversary celebration of the schools’ historic meeting in the 1963 NCAA tournament.
Sword and Johnson, who were signed two years apart by former MSU coach Rick Stansbury, served as their team’s inside-out go-to players to help MSU improve to 5-1.
“I hope you guys can see why we keep going to Montgomery, Alabama, and Carver High School specifically, to recruit because those guys gave us 44 points, which is always a good thing,” Ray said.
Sword, who has struggled with consistency this season, found his rhythm in the final three to four minutes by taking the basketball to the basket and not settling for contested jump shots.
“Craig really does so many things well on both ends of the floor,” Ray said. “His decision-making is really good once he gets to the rim.”
Loyola (3-5) led 60-56 in overtime, but a dunk by Sword capped a 5-0 run that gave the Bulldogs a 61-60 lead in a game that had 20 lead changes. Sword was 8 of 12 from the field and 8 of 10 from the free-throw line. He finished one point of the career-high he set in Febraury against LSU.
“That one in the corner was a play where he caught and was at the rim before I could blink, and that athletic move just captures what we need Chicken (Sword’s nickname) to do this season,” Ray said. “I think Chicken asserting himself as a phenomenal athlete really can cause a defense problems.”
MSU extended the lead to 65-62 with 54 seconds left and then held on as Fred Thomas blocked an off-balance 3-pointer as the horn sounded.
Thomas missed a pair of free throws earlier in overtime and was determined to make up for that error by shadowing leading scorer Milton Doyle (team-high 22 points).
“(Winning close games) is great for us,” Sword said. “We have a full roster now, so we are just going to compete. We are going to do what we do every day in practice. We play with a lot of confidence, and we feel like somebody is going to make plays.”
Johnson was the main force inside on an afternoon sophomore center Gavin Ware didn’t score. The 6-foot-7 power forward came off the bench to score a career-high 20 points and grab 11 rebounds.
“Roquez is going to have to come in and give us that energy every night, but if he adds what he did tonight by scoring, it’s an added bonus,” Ray said. “We knew we had to get some points inside with them being a smaller team. We thought we would get them from Gavin (Ware) or Colin (Borchert), but we didn’t. Instead, Roquez was really good as a shifty dude and able to split their double team action in the post. He was a dominating force at finding a way to get to the rim.”
On Nov. 13, MSU announced the addition of another Carver High product for next season: 6-foot-7 forward Demetrius Houston.
“Every time we set foot on the court, Demetrius will be one of the best, if not the best, athletes on the court,” Ray said Nov. 13. “He is an elite athlete. Coach (James) Jackson has built a special program that has some of the same philosophies we believe in here. Demetrius is a tall, long wing that we do not have in our program who will help us become a better rebounding and finishing team.”
Houston averaged 11 points and seven rebounds per game last season to help Carver High reach the Class 6A state semifinals for the fourth-straight year. Houston was an Honorable Mention selection to the Class 6A All-State team.
Without Houston, MSU showed improvement last season from a 59-51 loss at Loyola-Chicago last season. The Bulldogs committed just nine turnovers and held the Ramblers to nine field goals in the second half.
“Overtime has been good to Mississippi State lately,” Ray said in reference to his squad’s victory and the football team’s victory against Ole Miss on Thursday in the Battle for the Golden Egg. “Neither of those statistical things could’ve happened last year. In fact, I think five more minutes of basketball meant at least probably five to 10 more turnovers for our team.”
MSU will conclude a three-game homestand at 6 p.m. Thursday against TCU in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge.
Follow Matt Stevens on Twitter @matthewcstevens.
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