Bulldogs whip No. 5 Sooners
By By Richard Dark / EMG staff writer
Dec. 29, 2002
NEW ORLEANS Down the road, the 16th-ranked Mississippi State Bulldogs may very well look to Saturdays performance as a benchmark for the season.
Anytime you hold the No. 5 team in the country to 35 points below their average, it tends to stand out.
That's exactly what the Bulldogs did in a 54-45 upset of the Oklahoma Sooners in front of boisterous State-laden crowd of nearly 12,000 at New Orleans Arena.
The Bulldogs have now won eight straight since losing their opener against La.-Lafayette without their star player. The Sooner setback spoiled a Crescent City homecoming for a pair of New Orleans natives in guards Hollis Price and Quannas White.
Forcing the Sooners into 18 turnovers, while committing only 13, many in the early going, could be considered a testament to that.
Trailing 36-30, after Price, who paced the Sooners (6-2) with 17 points, nailed a lights-out 3-pointer, State center Mario Austin, a former Sumter County High standout began the run innocently enough by nailing a pair of free throws at the 12:38 mark.
He also ended it with two more freebies at the 3:29 mark, which gave MSU a 48-38 lead.
But in between, the Bulldogs put on a defensive clinic and with points coming at a premium, the 10-point lead looked insurmountable.
Turns out, it was. The Sooners stormed back with a 7-0 run to cut the lead to 48-45 on two Price foul shots with 1:43 to go. But Austin saved the day with a clutch 3-point play to push the lead back to six, and effectively settle the issue.
The Sooners had no answer for Austin, who collected a game-high 18 points, to go with eight rebounds and three steals.
Michal Ignerski chipped in with 11 points, while Zimmerman added eight. Ontario Harper and Timmy Bowers each pulled down six rebounds. Bowers only scored 3, but it may have been the biggest bucket of the game, in terms of momentum.
A Zimmerman finger roll immediately followed a Winsome Frazier dunk. Brandon Fraziers 3-point play gave MSU a 41-38 lead before Bowers nailed the triple to officially stamp it as a run, much to the delight of the Bulldog partisan crowd.
Despite the setback, the Sooners were obviously undaunted, which is a byproduct of December games.
Zimmerman agreed with his counterpart. "I was telling the guys in the locker room that today was going to be like an NCAA Tournament game, you got three teams here ranked in the Top 25. We knew the intensity level was going to be high."
For the Bulldogs (8-1) the defensive intensity level may have been at an all-time high. But for fans of offense, the snail's pace contest certainly wasnt anything memorable. The Sooners were held to only 32 percent shooting, while State shot just 36.
That tells you all you need to know about how the Bulldogs are currently playing.
