One stop, that's all Bulldogs needed
By By Jeff Byrd / sports editor
Jan. 16, 2003
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. This loss feels worse than Florida.
Mississippi State was one defensive stop away from getting right back into the Southeastern Conference basketball race.
Instead, Alabama's Antonie Pettway got essentially a free pass at a wide open layup tying the game to send it into overtime in front of a delighted capacity Coleman Coliseum crowd of 15,349 here Wednesday night.
Overtime proved to be a bad time for the visiting Bulldogs. Alabama went back to what helped erase a 17-point deficit from the first half. They went to their block on the post in SEC Player of the Year Erwin Dudley.
Dudley, a 6-foot-9 wide body, easily posted up State's Mario Austin for the deuce and the foul. The three-point play put Alabama in front to stay. The Crimson Tide would go on to win 68-62.
The loss leaves Mississippi State in a deep hole at the start of the SEC Conference schedule. The defending SEC Tournament champions and a team that was ranked as high as seventh, just 10 days ago, is now 0-3 in the SEC.
A hoarse MSU head coach Rick Stansbury faced the media afterwards.
A layup.
State had taken a 55-53 lead with 9.1 seconds left after Timmy Bowers had scored an excellently executed basket right down the middle of the lane against a sleeping Tide defense.
Then it was State's turn to sleep
Williams saw Pettway in the corner.
It was an easy romp to the basket for the layup. State could only get off a half-court shot in the remaining second.
"Up by two with nine seconds left, we will give them anything besides a three-pointer and a lay up. Of the two, the lay up is the higher percentage shot and that is what we gave up."
This was a game of wild momentum swings. Alabama basically came unglued in the first half, breaking down defensively. The Bulldogs were making reverse layups off the break and grabbed a 36-19 lead with three minutes to go in the first half.
Then State, quit doing, what had been working. Of course, Alabama switched defenses going to a zone. The Tide scored the last five points of the half to regain some
composure. They trailed 36-24 at the break.
State's offensive problems resurfaced in the second half. From the 3-minute mark of the first half until the 3-minute mark left in regulation, the Bulldogs scored a grand total of 12 points.
With three minutes to play, the Bulldogs were down 53-48 and things were looking pretty grim.
Yet to their credit, the Dogs fought back. A three-point play by Ontario Harper was huge with 2:30 left. That play made it 53-51.
Alabama then started missing free throws. A key one-and-one miss allowed the Bulldogs a chance to tie it and they did when Zimmerman scored off an inbound play.
Another Tide miss, opened the door further with under 25 seconds left. Again, State came through with Zimmerman scoring with nine seconds left.
All there was left to do was make a stop.
Stansbury was adamant about one thing. The Bulldogs won't roll over, even down 0-3 in the conference.
