STARKVILLE — The Mississippi State men’s basketball team ran into one major problem Wednesday night when it played host to No. 1 Kentucky.
The Wildcats were just too good.
Kentucky, which entered the game needing four wins to close a flawless regular season, played like a team that has perfection within its reach and used a 19-3 second-half run to pull away for a 74-56 victory against Mississippi State at Humphrey Coliseum.
Kentucky (28-0, 15-0 Southeastern Conference) produced multiple highlights, including five alley-oops and nine dunks, to drop MSU to 12-16 and 5-10.
“As long as I’ve been watching college basketball, that’s one of the better teams that I’ve seen,” MSU coach Rick Ray said. “I guess I haven’t been around that long, but as a collective group of talent, this Kentucky team is one of the best I’ve ever seen. I have to give a lot of credit to John (Calipari). He’s got those guys playing collectively, playing as a unit. They are on the same page. They are sharing the ball, and it is going to take a great night from an elite basketball team to beat them.”
MSU, which has lost its past four home games, stayed with Kentucky for the first 25 minutes. After trailing 36-27 at halftime, MSU outscored Kentucky 10-5 in the first four minutes of the second half and trailed 41-37 at the 15-minute, 57-second mark. But Kentucky’s defense tightened and its offense loosened in a game-changing 19-3 run in the next six minutes.
“With an ice storm outside, the fact we know we have to stay the night due to the weather, it was a trap game,” Calipari said. “I thought Mississippi State played well. They missed free throws. If they make their free throws, they might’ve beaten us.”
MSU was 16 of 27 from the free-throw line, but Kentucky’s defense was just as much a factor. The Wildcats, who start three players 6-foot-10 or taller, blocked nine shots and limited MSU to 37.3 percent shooting (19-for-51) from the field. The Bulldogs were 2 of 11 from 3-point range and had six assists on 19 baskets.
“They blocked a lot of shots,” said MSU guard Craig Sword, who scored 10 points. “Those blocked shots were really like turnovers because as soon as they happened, they were off and running on the fast break.”
Kentucky’s defense played a big role in two MSU scoring droughts. In the first half, the Wildcats stretched their lead to 14 points as the Bulldogs went five minutes without a field goal. In the second half, a six-minute scoreless stretch allowed Kentucky to turn a four-point lead into a 24-point cushion in a matter of minutes.
Four Wildcats reached double figures in scoring, paced by freshman forward Trey Lyles (career- and game-high 18 points).
“Just being aggressive and having fun with my teammates,” Lyles said. “We were sharing the ball, getting good shots.”
Kentucky’s offense didn’t always flow smoothly. The Wildcats struggled to score in the final five minutes of the first half and the first five minutes of the second half, which allowed MSU to close the gap to four.
That’s when the Wildcats adjusted, according to Calipari.
“Rick had his guys ready to play,” Calipari said. ” We kept settling for jumpers and they had some breakout layups. I thought Rick did a great job preparing his team for our stuff. He did his job, so when we came to the huddle early in the second half, I threw all our stuff out. I said, ‘Bag all of it, just drive the ball.’ We need somebody to get into the lane and make a play.”
That triggered Kentucky’s fast finish and enabled it to notch 15 assists on 28 baskets.
The second-half surge included a number of highlight-reel plays, including a monstrous dunk on a fast break by 6-11 freshman Karl-Anthony Towns (12 points).
“That’s a great feeling,” said Towns of finishing a 3-on-1 fast break with the dunk. “Every game we put these jerseys on, it’s the other team’s super bowl, so plays like that, that give us an energy boost, they are big.”
The loss was MSU’s fifth in the past six games, and secured Ray’s third losing regular season in three years as MSU’s coach. But unlike other recent games, like a 23-turnover performance in a 65-61 loss to Arkansas, MSU played well. The Bulldogs committed eight turnovers and stayed within five rebounds (35-30) of the taller Wildcats.
“I thought we did some really good things as far as limiting them defensively,” Ray said. “It’s an eight-point game with 12 minutes left. But they get going and it goes from an eight-point lead to a 20-point lead in three minutes. That happened for two reasons. First of all, they are really, really good. Number two, our shot selection became really bad. If you drive in against them in the halfcourt, you are going to get your shot blocked. And a blocked shot is as good as a turnover, it allows them to get out and run.”
Ray said the final score wasn’t indicative of MSU’s effort because he felt the Bulldogs kept pace with the country’s best team until the final 10 minutes.
“It’s hard to measure what this game means for us because you’re disappointed by the outcome,” Ray said. “Everybody will look at final score and people will say Kentucky had another easy game. But people who actually watched the game will know it was a very difficult game.”
Junior guard Fred Thomas led MSU with 14 points. Junior forward Gavin Ware had nine points and grabbed a team-best nine rebounds, while freshman Demetrius Houston had a career-high eight points.
Aaron Harrison added 16 points for Kentucky, while Devin Booker had 14. Towns led the Wildcats with 10 rebounds.
“That’s due to them having so much talent,” Ray said of Kentucky’s balanced scoring attack. “You can’t focus on just one guy because as soon as you do, the next guy gets you.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brandon Walker on Twitter @BWonStateBeat
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