Tide wipes out Bulldogs
By By Austin Bishop/EMG regional sports director
February 22, 2004
STARKVILLE It was all about the number three.
Going into Mississippi State's 77-73 loss to Alabama, the fourth-ranked Bulldogs had a chance to move up to No. 3 in the Associated Press rankings with a win over the Crimson Tide.
Instead, it rained threes for Alabama, as the visitors from Tuscaloosa shot 53 percent from beyond the arc to the take the SEC West Division upset. While The Crimson Tide hurt MSU from long range, the Bulldogs struggled from three-point range, making just 6-of-21.
And to top it off, Alabama's No. 3 Kennedy Winston had a game to remember, notching career highs with 31 points and 11 rebounds. The sophomore hit both of his three-point attempts and was 13-for-15 from the free-throw line.
While The Crimson Tide, now 13-10 for the season overall and 5-7 in SEC play, shot 50 percent from the field (23-of-46) and and was 8-of-15 from three-point range, State struggled.
Timmy Bowers did hit a pair of three-pointers late in the game, but as a whole, the entire team struggled from long range. The usually reliable Winsome Frazier missed his first seven three-point attempts.
The 21-2 Bulldogs return to action on Wednesday, when LSU comes into Humphrey Coliseum. State, now 10-2 in league play, has a one-game lead over Kentucky for the overall SEC lead and remains three games ahead of LSU in the SEC West, thanks to the Tigers loss to Vanderbilt on Saturday.
State led by as many as three points in the first half, but Alabama controlled the lead for most of the first 20 minutes, as well as the entire game.
The Bulldogs managed to take a 33-32 lead at the half, ironically on a three-pointer by Lawrence Roberts with 1.7 seconds left. But it was Alabama doing the long-distance dance in the early stages of the second half, knocking down four quick three-pointers to go up 44-33 with 16:35 to play in the half.
While The Bulldogs never put together a dominating run, State did manage to slowly work itself back into the game, cutting its deficit to 60-58 on a three-pointer by Bowers with 3:57 left to play.
But Kennedy made an old-fashioned three-point play, and then knocked down two more free throws to spread Alabama's lead back out to seven points at 65-58.
The Bulldogs got back to within three with two seconds left when Bowers knocked down another three-pointer. But Kennedy hit one-of-two free throws to seal the win for the Crimson Tide.
Stansbury wasn't about to agree that a loss would be good for his team, which had won eight straight.
Emmett Thomas knocked down 4-of-5 from three-point range for Alabama, finishing with 16 points.
Lawrence Roberts scored 23 points and had eight rebounds for the Bulldogs, and Bowers scored 14 points, followed by Frazier with 12 and Gary Ervin with 11.
