STARKVILLE — Quinndary Weatherspoon wants his team to be mentally tougher.
The Mississippi State freshman has seen in the last three games, his team come close to victory, but fall short in the final seconds. The Bulldogs lost 61-60 to Texas A&M in the Southeastern Conference opener Jan. 6, 82-68 to Arkansas Jan. 9 in game that was closer than the final score indicated and 80-74 to Kentucky Tuesday. The Bulldogs cut a 20-point deficit to three against the Wildcats, but it wasn’t enough. All three losses have drained the mental toughness of the Bulldogs.
The Bulldogs were in another close ballgame and had several opportunities to take the lead and pull out a win, but couldn’t get over the hump. The Bulldogs lost 80-75 Saturday to Tennessee in Humphrey Coliseum.
“We’ve all got to get mentally tough,” Weatherspoon. “When we’re down two and coming down the floor, we can’t foul. The biggest thing we have to do is play defense and toughen up.”
After the Volunteers (9-8, 2-3 SEC) built a 60-55 lead with 5 minutes, 58 seconds remaining, the Bulldogs (7-9, 0-4) scored the next four points to cut the lead to one. Gavin Ware made a pair of free throws and Weatherspoon made a layup on the next offensive possession to cut the lead to 60-59 with 5:15 left.
But the Volunteers went on an 11-5 run in the next three and a half minutes to push the lead to 71-64. Weatherspoon, who scored a career-high and team-high 23 points, knocked down back-to-back 3-pointers, including one from the left corner to cut the lead to 73-70. But like every time before, MSU couldn’t make the mental transition from offense to defense and the Vols finished the game on a 5-1 run to seal the win.
“I think when we cut the lead down, sometimes we get caught up in the crowd,” Weatherspoon said. “We’ve just got to get back on defense and try to get another stop.”
After trailing 38-27 at halftime, the Bulldogs slowly began to chip away at the Volunteer lead. MSU cut the lead to seven three separate times early in the second half, but each time, Tennessee answered with a 3-pointer. Weatherspoon got an offensive rebound a putback to cut the lead to 40-33 with 16:35 remaining in the game, but Baulkman nailed a 3-pointer to push the lead back to 10. Detrick Mostella made a 3 to push Tennessee’s lead to 46-37 after Ware, who scored 21 points to give him double figures in all 16 games this season, made a tip-in to cut the lead to 43-37. Mostella, who led Tennessee with 24 points, made another 3 to push the lead to 51-41 with 12:51 left.
Tennessee coach Rick Barnes knew MSU was going to keep making pushes to get back in the game, but he liked what he saw early in the second half from his team and seldom used a timeout when MSU was making its push late. He saw a mental toughness from his team he didn’t see in four road losses earlier this season.
“What we didn’t want to do was tighten up,” Barnes said. “We talked about trying not to flinch, but come down and execute on the offensive end.
“I just thought our poise was the best it’s been all year in a situation of where being on the road, a team makes a push to get back and our body language was good. I felt like our guys were in a good place.”
Bulldog coach Ben Howland decided to go to a zone defense in December because he thought it would help his team play better on the defensive end. The Bulldogs played zone in the previous three conference games and started out in the zone against the Volunteers , but Tennessee made 5 of 6 3-pointers in the first seven minutes. That weighed on the Bulldogs mentally and they didn’t think they could compete in the zone, so during a timeout in the first half the players told Howland they wanted to play man-to-man.
“I blame myself,” Howland said. “In man-to-man, it’s really clear the responsibilities. Zone has a lot of principles and responsibilities too, but it’s much clearer in man. I’d rather go down fighting that way.”
Although the Volunteers made their last six shots from the floor, the team liked the play of the man-to-man in the second half. After shooting 50 percent from the field in the first half, Tennessee shot just 44.8 percent in the second half.
“I think the man really got aggressive in the second half because we wanted to play man,” Weatherspoon said.
Howland said he plans on playing man-to-man moving forward, including next against Florida 6 p.m. (ESPN) Tuesday in Gainesville, Florida.
The mental toughness may be sharper against the Gators knowing man-to-man will be played the entire game.
“I told the guys we’re better playing man-to-man,” Howland said. “That’s what we’ve got to do and that’s what I believe in as a coach. We’ve got to live and die with our man-to-man defense.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Ben Wait on Twitter @bcwait
Ben Wait reports on Mississippi State University sports for The Dispatch.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 37 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.