STARKVILLE – It’s amazing what happens when Mississippi State has more of its pieces show up on the playing floor.
A senior guard and freshman wing player, both of whom weren’t available for last year’s loss to Florida Atlantic, led the No. 17 Bulldogs to 75-68 win over the same Owls team Tuesday night.
Less than a month after verbally committing to the Bulldogs program, Rodney Hood was in Meridian trying in the early process of leading his high school team to a Class 6A state championship season during the upset at Humphrey Coliseum last December. The 2011 Gatorade Player of the Year selection out of high school got his first career double-double while playing every second of action for the first time in his college career.
Bost, MSU’s Wooden Award nominee, was calling clear-out sets for himself to get 13 of his game-high 22 points in the final nine minutes of the contest.
“Somebody had to step up down the stretch with us playing without our two big guys,” Bost said. “I was trying to put our team on my back but even in those situations I’d find Rodney or find our shooters.”
For the third game this season, MSU (10-1) was without the services of junior forward Arnett Moultrie. The current leader of the Southeastern Conference in rebounds and double-doubles was inactive with what State officials said was tendinitis in both knees. Without Moultrie and starting guard Brian Bryant, who was serving the final game of his university-mandated three-game suspension, MSU essentially tried to avoid another upset bid by the favorite to win the Sun Belt Conference.
“It was just one of those games that you just find a way to survive and that’s what we did,” Stansbury said. “(Bost and Hood) weren’t going to let us lose. They simply made some winning plays.”
Stansbury acknowledged after the game that last year’s loss to FAU was a perfect example of how his team would find an reason to lose to a lesser opponent. Being down two starters and shooting 4-of-16 from three-point range could’ve been the perfect excuse.
FAU (4-6) was unable to complete the 13-point second-half comeback due to missing 11-of-18 free throws and committing two costly turnovers late in the contest.
“I was giving a free throw lecture (in the locker room),” FAU coach Mike Jarvis said. “What went wrong tonight against a Top 20 team is unnecessary turnovers and missed free throws. It’s really that simple.”
Despite his costly late turnovers that frustrated Jarvis, FAU 5-foot-6 guard Raymond Taylor led his team in scoring with a season-high 20 points. The preseason Sun Belt first-team selection scored just seven points and went 0-for-4 from beyond the three-point arc in last season’s 61-59 win over MSU. Tuesday night Taylor drained some key late three-pointers to keep the Owls within striking distance.
“We got it to where we wanted to be and if there was going to be an upset then I thought there could’ve been an upset tonight,” Jarvis said. “We have a chance a win down the stretch and we didn’t finish. For us it’s going to be about the first week of March anyway.”
With the Bulldogs already playing with a short rotation, MSU junior forward Renardo Sidney made the situation worse by getting two early fouls just six minutes into the game and forced to sit next to Stansbury for the rest of the first half.
When the 280-pound forward had to leave the game, MSU was forced to go with an extremely small four-guard lineup that included Wendell Lewis as the only frontcourt player.
Sidney would finish with 10 points, eight rebounds and three blocks in 20 minutes of action.
“You’re already down to six guys at the start and then Sid picks up two fouls and you’re down to five,” Stansbury said. “DeVille (Smith) wasn’t very good tonight, not very good at all so now you’re down to four. That’s the way it was.”
It got so desperate MSU turned to sophomore guard Shaun Smith for action for the first time this season.
The former Noxubee County star, who has struggled with numerous surgeries on both hips, played 12 minutes mostly at the power forward position.
Stansbury outwardly showed his disappointment with MSU’s inability to rotate from sideline to sideline throughout the game, The 14-year coaching veteran loudly stomped his foot, ripped his suit jacket off and yelled at his players in front of the 4,355 at Humphrey Coliseum after almost every one of FAU’s nine made three-point shots.
“It’s frustrating because we had such bad lineups,” Stansbury said.
“That wasn’t our team tonight. You’re trying to duck tape it together and find a way to win.”
MSU now faces its first road test of the season when it travels to Calihan Hall to play at the University of Detroit Saturday (11 a.m.).
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 46 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.