The sarcasm in Andy Kennedy’s voice was evident.
Sitting on the podium in the interview room after Ole Miss’s 78-66 win over Mississippi State late Thursday night, the Rebels’ coach asked no one in particular if Marshall Henderson’s 19 3-point attempts was an SEC tournament record.
Informed by a conference staffer it was indeed, he turned and looked at his prolific-shooting guard and said with a smirk, “Congratulations, Marshall.”
Laughter filled the room.
Everybody knows full well that there is nobody in the SEC who will heave a shot quicker than Henderson, especially one from behind the painted arc 19-feet-9 inches from the basket. But more important than his record number of attempts was his seven makes. The Rebels needed every one to fight back from a 13-point, second-half deficit to defeat their arch rivals at the Georgia Dome.
“In the first half, there were like three or four (3-point shots) that rolled in and out,” said Henderson, who broke the record of 17 that Georgia’s Jody Patton has held since 1991. “I think it was the most in-and-outs I’ve ever had. But they were there and it was coming. So when it got to be crunch time, those shots had to be made.”
The explosive shooting guard struggled in the first half when he scored nine points on 3-of-12 shooting. But he found his stroke in the second half and was 4-of-8 from behind the arc.
Included in that barrage was a pair of daggers. His 3-pointer at the 3:36 mark gave the Rebels a 68-60 lead. He removed all doubt about the outcome 56 seconds later when another 3-pointer — this one with a high arc — made the score 71-60. Henderson and teammate Jarvis Summers led all scorers with 21 points.
With the victory, Ole Miss (19-13), the tournament’s No. 6 seed, gets a rematch with No. 3 seed Georgia (18-12) in the quarterfinals at 9:30 p.m. Friday night. The Bulldogs eked out a 61-60 lead on Feb. 15 in Athens. Charles Mann made the second of two free throws with 1.5 seconds remaining to score the victory for Georgia.
“It was a knock-down, drag-out,” Kennedy said. “We couldn’t finish it. We missed some crucial free throws and then Charles Mann made a winning play. … So we know it will be a battle. We’re back on their home turf and they have earned that.”
Henderson was similarly combustible against Georgia. He led all scorers with 24 points in that game, was 5-of-11 from 3 and 7-of-7 from the foul like as he led a comeback that almost undid the Bulldogs. Henderson drew a controversial flagrant foul call on Georgia’s Marcus Thornton in the final minutes that fueled their rally.
“Oh, yeah, definitely ready to play them again,” Henderson said. “They got us. I remember Kenny Gaines had a really good game, shot the ball well. We had our chances but had a couple of bone-head mistakes that hurt us in the end. But we’re excited to play them again.”
Georgia can only hope Ole Miss wore itself out a little Thursday. The Bulldogs got a double-bye into the quarterfinal round based on being among the SEC’s top four finishers in regular-season play.
But Kennedy believes having played a game already can have its advantages, too.
“I think Mississippi State showed early tonight that when you get a win in this building, I think it helps you (in the next game),” he said. “I think tomorrow we should have a little bit of an advantage early because we’ve seen the ball go in the basket here, especially in the second half. Hopefully we can take that approach.”
It looked for a long while like Georgia might instead be playing Mississippi State, a team it beat twice handily. The maroon-clad Bulldogs led the whole game Thursday, were up by 11 points at halftime and were ahead by 13, 51-38, with 16:42 to play.
But it was all Ole Miss after that. Ladarius White made a driving layup at the 8:12 mark to give the Rebels a 57-56 lead and cap a 19-5 run. Ole Miss just kept adding to it from there, outscoring the Bulldogs 43-22 in the second half.
Mississippi State, the 14th seed in the 14-team tournament, loses for the 14th time in its past 15 games. The Bulldogs (14-19) knocked off 11-seed Vanderbilt 82-68 in Wednesday’s first round. Mississippi State got 16 points apiece from Fred Thomas and Craig Sword.
