Cats slip away from the Dogs: MSU falls to Kentucky in double OT

Bulldogs led late, but couldn't hold on against the Wildcats

STARKVILLE, Miss. – A few load roars from the head Wildcat ended up spelling major trouble for the Bulldogs on Saturday night.

On the heels of Kentucky head coach John Calipari's ejection following two quick technical fouls, MSU saw a nine-point second-half lead disappear in a hurry and State ultimately fell 78-73 at home in double overtime. With the loss, the Bulldogs remain winless against Kentucky since February of 2009.

"There's a lot of hurt right now after losing that one today with so many opportunities to win it," State head coach Ben Howland said.

The opportunities were indeed many for MSU, who fell to 6-4 overall and 1-1 in Southeastern Conference action while Kentucky improved to 2-6 with a 1-0 mark in league play. State's best chance to win was likely in regulation.

The Bulldogs were able to build a nine-point advantage midway through the second half, thanks in large part to Calipari. The Kentucky head man voiced his displeasure at officials with 9:04 left in the period and got hit with his first technical foul. A second soon ensued. That sent MSU's Jalen Johnson to the line for four free throws, of which he hit three, to put State up 55-46. It looked as though the Bulldogs were in fine shape.

"We thought (the momentum) shifted our way when Jalen hit (the three) free throws," MSU guard D.J. Stewart said. "We were up nine. Then we had three possessions in a row where we had three turnovers in a row."

Yes, things started to slip away for the Bulldogs, quite literally. Buoyed by the turnovers, Kentucky went on a 10-0 run over the next four minutes of action to take a one-point lead.

It wasn't a one-time occurrence either. Turnovers ended up haunting MSU all night long. State had 16 turnovers in all, leading to 17 Kentucky points.

"I'll bet six or seven of (the turnovers) ended up being (Kentucky) layups or dunks," Howland said. "They weren't just turnovers. They were turnovers leading to easy baskets at the other end for them."

Nonetheless, MSU still had victory in its grasp throughout the night but couldn't seal the deal. Tied 61-61 in the closing seconds of regulation, Stewart couldn't hit a jumper with 20 ticks left on the clock. However State did hold defensively to force overtime.

In the first extra frame, the Bulldogs had another chance to celebrate. It was tied 68-68 and MSU had possession with 15 seconds to go and a chance for a game-winning shot. State again couldn't deliver. Guard Iverson Molinar tried to make something happen, but ended up having to settle for a heavily-contested long-distance shot that the officials ruled wasn't even taken before the buzzer sounded.

Both Howland and Molinar took blame for how it all went down.

"Really, when I look at the end of (the first) overtime, we didn't do a good job executing that last play," Howland said. "We didn't get a good shot off. We've got to do a better job of executing in those situations in these types of games. That's my fault. We didn't have it set up correctly where we understood what we were trying to do. We want to attack the rim. (Kentucky) had 10 fouls. We want to go to the basket in that situation. So maybe we do it without a ball screen next time and just let (Molinar) go himself."

Molinar said it was his responsibility, but he came up short.

"The plan was to get to the basket, but of course I made some mistakes," Molinar said. "I'll learn from it watching the video and next game or whenever they do that again, I'll be able to execute better at the end."

On this night though, the mishap proved costly. The game headed to a second overtime and the Wildcats outscored the Bulldogs 10-5 over the final five minutes. 

Five of those final 10 Kentucky points were scored by redshirt freshman guard Dontaie Allen, who entered Saturday's game averaging only five minutes of action per contest and he'd only taken six shots all year. Against State, Allen led all scorers with 23 points – 19 more than his previous career high of four. Allen was 8-of-13 from the field including 7-for-11 from three-point range.

"He was the difference-maker for them offensively," Howland said of Allen.

For State, Stewart, Molinar and Jalen Johnson all scored in double figures. Stewart tallied a team-best 19. Molinar had 17 while Johnson finished with 14. Yet none of it was enough and the Bulldogs were left to wonder what might have been after another excruciating loss at the hands of Kentucky – something that has become all too common over the years.

Now, MSU will try to put it all in the past. The Bulldogs are right back in action on Tuesday night at 8 p.m. central in a home tilt against Missouri. State will try to make sure the pain of Saturday night doesn't carry over.

"It's going to hurt and it should hurt," Howland said. "It's going to hurt all of us very much. That motivates you and pushes you to do better. If it doesn't hurt, then it's a problem. But tomorrow's a new day. We'll bounce back tomorrow...We'll start to prepare for Missouri. We'll watch some film. Then we'll come back and have a good practice on Monday and play a very good Missouri team on Tuesday that is one of the best teams in the country."

POSTGAME PRESS CONFERENCES

MSU guard Iverson Molinar

MSU guard D.J. Stewart

MSU head coach Ben Howland

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