NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Mississippi State Coach Rick Ray didn’t understand some of the compliments his team received this season even as it struggled through a 13-game losing streak.
“You’re not supposed to get a gold ribbon for playing hard,” Ray said Wednesday night after his 13th-seeded Bulldogs defeated No. 12 seed South Carolina 70-59 in the first round of the Southeastern Conference Tournament. “This is what you’re supposed to do. I’m always amazed when people talk about how hard we play. We’re supposed to do that.”
Ray’s injury-riddled Bulldogs are still playing hard.
They’re also finally starting to play well.
Fred Thomas, one of three freshmen in Mississippi State’s starting lineup, scored a career-high 21 points as the Bulldogs beat South Carolina and advanced to a second-round game with No. 5 seed Tennessee (19-11).
Mississippi State (10-21) has bounced back from its 13-game skid to win three of its last four. The Bulldogs heard criticism during the losing streak that their team might rank among the worst in SEC history. By avoidingthe bottom seed in the tournament and advancing to the second round, they at least have put that notion to rest.
“If you finish 13th [out of 14 teams] in the season, you can’t be the worst team ever in SEC history,” Ray said. “That pretty much solves all that.”
Colin Borchert and Roquez Johnson scored 11 points apiece and Gavin Ware added 10 for Mississippi State.
Bruce Ellington scored 13 points and Laimonas Chatkevicius matched a career high with 11 points for South Carolina (14-18), which lost five of its last six in the first season of Frank Martin’s coaching tenure.
South Carolina’s Brenton Williams, who had scored a career-high 38 points in a 79-72 victory over Mississippi State on March 6, shot 2 of 13 and had just six points Wednesday.
Mississippi State has dealt with all kinds of injuries in Ray’s debut season.
Junior guard Jalen Steele and freshman guards Andre Applewhite and Jacoby Davis tore anterior cruciate ligaments. Senior forward Wendell Lewis fractured a right patellar tendon. Steele ranked second on the team with 10.1 points per game. Lewis averaged 8.1 points in just eight games before getting hurt.
Yet the Bulldogs never gave up on the season even as the losses piled up. That perseverance is paying off now.
“We just had to slow it down a little bit and just go out there and grind,” Borchert said. “We’re not that talented a team, but we can work hard. We can control that. That’s the one thing that we’ve been doing, is going out there and controlling how hard we work.” TEXAS A&M 71, AUBURN 62
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Elston Turner scored 22 points even with his broken left pinkie wrapped up in a splint, and the Texas A&M Aggies beat Auburn in their first SEC Tournament game.
Texas A&M (18-14) came to the tournament having lost four of five. But the 11th-seeded Aggies drew the SEC’s lastplace team in Auburn, and now they will play sixth-seeded Missouri tonight in a matchup of the former Big 12 teams.
Alex Caruso added 14 points, and Kourtney Roberson and Fabyon Harris had 11 apiece for Texas A&M.
Auburn (9-23) wrap up the season losing its last 10 games and now have lost 11 in a row in Nashville. Coach Tony Barbee has yet to win a tournament game in his first three trips. Frankie Sullivan scored a team-high 19 points, and Chris Denson added 15 points.
Sports, Pages 19 on 03/14/2013