STARKVILLE — Mississippi State men’s basketball coach Ben Howland will be anxious to watch the final play again.
Howland felt good about his team’s defense on the final possession Wednesday night against East Tennessee State. He felt like the Bulldogs had the best game plan to force overtime.
But MSU gave up two offensive rebounds, including a game-winning putback by Hanner Mosquera-Perea in a 67-65 to East Tennessee State at Humphrey Coliseum.
“We just didn’t block out well enough,” Howland said. “No one came to block, so I will be curious to see who blocked out and who didn’t.”
The loss snapped a three-game winning streak for MSU (6-3), which never has won four in a row under Howland in his two seasons.
Desonta Bradford brought the ball up the court for the Buccaneers (8-2) on the final possession and Howland put the 6-foot-4 Quinndary Weatherspoon on the 6-foot-4 Bradford instead of the 5-11 point guard I.J. Ready, who had guarded him on previous trips. But Bradford still worked into the lane and put up a shot. David Burrell tried to tip in the miss, but it didn’t go down. Mosquera-Perea was there to tip in the miss with two seconds remaining.
When Bradford’s shot went up, every MSU player blocked out but Aric Holman, who was guarding Mosquera-Perea. Holman didn’t keep his body on him long enough and the 6-9 senior forward was there to win the game.
“I saw the other team take a shot, my teammates boxing out, and I didn’t hold my box out long enough,” Holman said.
Mosquera-Perea scored three points — all in the first half — before the final tip in. He was 2 of 5 from the field and had seven rebounds.
MSU trailed 31-26 at halftime and by 10 points twice — 42-32 with 16 minutes, 7 seconds remaining and 45-35 with 13:35 remaining in the second half. Trailing 50-41, MSU used an 8-0 run to cut the deficit to 50-49.
However, the Buccaneers stretched their lead again. Trailing 65-62 with 20 seconds remaining, MSU freshman Lamar Peters dribbled to his right, crossed over at the top of the key, and pulled up to hit a 3-pointer to even the score at 65 with 10 seconds left.
“It was really tough, but at the end of the day I kept faith in my team,” said Holman about fighting back. “We’ve been in situations like that, so we felt comfortable with where we were at.”
After starting the game 5 of 7 from the field, MSU struggled to keep that pace in the first 20 minutes. MSU shot 37 percent (10 of 27) from the field in the first half. The Bulldogs shot 41.8 percent (23 of 55) from the field and 33.3 percent (3 of 9) from 3-point range.
Howland said he knew East Tennessee State’s depth and experience would present challenges. ETSU coach Steve Forbes felt like his team also had a good game plan defensively.
“Coach talked about grit and toughness,” Bradford said. “He didn’t think we played with any toughness, any grit in our last couple of games and that was really it: just playing tough, physical defense.”
Forbes said he wasn’t happy with his team’s effort in a 75-61 loss on Saturday at Dayton and wanted his players to win the rebounding margin and not turn the ball over more than 12 times. The last rebound gave the Buccaneers a 36-35 advantage. They committed 12 turnovers.
Holman led MSU with 17 points. He had six rebounds and four blocked shots. Weatherspoon added 13 points, while Mario Kegler and Peters had 12 and 10 points, respectively.
Weatherspoon was 3 of 14 from the field (0 of 4 from 3-point range). He was 7 of 8 from the free-throw line.
“I don’t think they were doing anything spectacular, I just couldn’t get it going,” Weatherspoon. “I wasn’t shooting the ball real good.”
Howland felt like Weatherspoon took too many quick jump shots instead of attacking the rim in the first half when he was 1 of 7 and scored three points. He said Weatherspoon has to be more patient, which he was in the second half.
Bradford led the Buccaneers with 15 points, while T.J. Cromer had 14.
MSU will play Southern Mississippi at 8 p.m. Monday (ESPNU) in the Mississippi Coliseum in Jackson.
Howland said he will learn a lot about his team once he processes the film, but he credited ETSU.
“We knew they were good going into the game,” Howland said. “East Tennessee is really tough and they are veteran.”
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 36 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.