Mississippi State guard Quinndary Weatherspoon (11) tries to drive against the defense of Kentucky guard Keldon Johnson (3) in the first half of an NCAA basketball game against Mississippi State in Starkville, Miss., Saturday, Feb. 9, 2019. 

STARKVILLE – An obviously relieved John Calipari was talking after his fifth-ranked Kentucky Wildcats fought off a furious Mississippi State second half rally to beat the Bulldogs 71-67 Saturday.

“We held on to the rope, but our hands are bleeding right now,” is the way Calipari metaphorically described his team after it led by 15 at halftime and by 18 early in the second half and then by only one with eight minutes left to play.

“They’re a Top 20 team,” Calipari said of the Bulldogs. “They are a team that will advance in the (NCAA) tournament. They’re physically tough. They’ve got great guard play….”

Rick Cleveland

Perhaps, but State, ranked as high as No. 14 earlier in the season, is not ranked now. More importantly, Saturday’s loss dropped the Bulldogs to 4-6 in the SEC and 16-7 overall. The Bulldogs have fallen solidly into the SEC’s second division, which is not where you want to be heading into the middle of February.

“We need to win,” State’s Ben Howland said. “We need to win Tuesday night against Alabama. We don’t need to drop to 4 and 7.”

Alabama comes to The Hump for an 8 p.m. game on Tuesday. The Crimson Tide not only has already defeated State (83-79 on Jan. 29), but is the only SEC team that has been good enough to beat Kentucky (20-3, 9-1).

If any mid-February game can be called a must-win, then Alabama will be one for State. The Bulldogs already have lost three SEC games on their home floor. They can’t afford another home loss.

And here’s the deal: The Bulldogs aren’t playing poorly. They lost in overtime to oh-so-talented LSU on Wednesday night. That came after a tough road victory over Ole Miss, which nevertheless is now 2.5 games ahead of State in the SEC standings.

Kentucky forward PJ Washington, right, manages to pull the ball away from Mississippi State forward Reggie Perry (1) in the second half of an NCAA basketball game in Starkville, Miss., Saturday, Feb. 9, 2019. Kentucky won 71-67. 

The Bulldogs had a chance to beat Kentucky on Saturday, but they couldn’t get it done. Heart-breaking losses are nothing new. The Bulldogs lost at South Carolina in overtime. They lost to Ole Miss, here, by four points. They lost by four at Alabama. They lost that overtime game to LSU. They could just as easily be 6-4 as their current 4-6, but you are what your record says you are and currently the State is desperate for some success.

“I liked our fight, I liked our effort,” Howland said. “I’m proud of how we competed.”

Most of that fight and effort came in the second half after Kentucky had taken a 49-31 lead on PJ Washington’s 3-pointer with 16 minutes, 41 seconds left to play. Then, just when you thought Kentucky might blow the Bulldogs away and empty The Hump early, State suddenly caught fire. Q Weatherspoon, scoreless in the first half, hit the first of his three second half treys to begin the rally. More importantly, State turned up its intensity on defense, getting the crowd of more than 9,000 into the game.

The Bulldogs fed off the crowd. Lamar Peters found the range. Freshman Robert Woodard made some big baskets. So did Nick Weatherspoon.

“I told our team at halftime that they would have two good runs in them in the second half,” Calipari said. “I told them we gotta respond to those runs and we did.”

The biggest response of all came from guard Tyler Herro, who might just as well have dropped one “r” from his last name for what he did with 2:59 remaining. Kentucky was clinging to a four-point lead. The crowd was deafening. State was defending well. The shot clock was running down. And then the 6-foot-5 Herro, hit a well-guarded, NBA-length trey, falling away from the basket right in front of the Kentucky bench.

“How about that shot?” Calipari would later say.

Shots like that win tough games. And those are the clutch, tough shots State has failed to make in too many games this season.

“I thought we played well enough to win,” Howland said. He could have said the same after the LSU game earlier in the week.

But again, you are what your record says you are. Right now, the Bulldogs are two games under .500 in a league that is as good as it has been over 25 years. It’s not going to get any easier, so, clearly, State must get better.

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Rick Cleveland, a native of Hattiesburg and resident of Jackson, has been Mississippi Today’s sports columnist since 2016. A graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi with a bachelor’s in journalism, Rick has worked for the Hattiesburg American, Monroe (La.) News Star World, Jackson Daily News and Clarion Ledger as a reporter, editor and columnist.

He was executive director of the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame. His work as a syndicated columnist and celebrated sports writer has appeared in numerous magazines, periodicals and newspapers. Rick has authored four books and has been recognized 13 times as Mississippi Sports Writer of the Year.

He was inducted into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame in 2016 and into the Hattiesburg Hall of Fame in 2018. He received the Richard Wright Award for Literary Excellence in 2011 and was inducted into the University of Southern Mississippi Communications Hall of Fame in 2018. In 2000, he was honored with the Distinguished Mississippian Award from Mississippi Press Association. He has received numerous state, regional and national awards for his column writing and reporting.