Bama rolls over Bulldogs

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Posted 8:02AM on Sunday, January 20, 2002

TUSCALOOSA, ALABAMA - Alabama and Mississippi State are becoming more than friendly rivals. Erwin Dudley scored 24 points, Rod Grizzard had 22 and both teams were called for a pair of second-half technical fouls as the 16th-ranked Crimson Tide beat the Bulldogs 85-73 Saturday night. ``There's a lot of emotion with these two teams,'' Alabama coach Mark Gottfried said. ``It's become a pretty intense rivalry.'' The Tide (16-3, 4-1 Southeastern Conference) claimed their 14th straight home win and the Bulldogs (15-4, 2-3) lost for the 10th straight time on the road against a ranked league foe. ``Sometimes the speed of a game can cause you to lose your poise, and that's what happened to us,'' Mississippi State coach Rick Stansbury said. Grizzard also had something to do with it. He scored 12 points in six minutes with Dudley out with four fouls late, and has 73 in the last three meetings with the Bulldogs. ``Grizzard just took the game over and we couldn't come back,'' said Marckell Patterson, who had 12 points for Mississippi State. ``We've got to make better decisions down the stretch.'' The Bulldogs cut it to 66-60 on Michael Gholar's long 3-pointer with 6:25 left. Kenny Walker, who had 16 points, answered with a basket and free throw, and Grizzard's bank shot pushed it back to 11. Mississippi State pounded it inside to Mario Austin, who had 17 of his 19 points in the second half, but couldn't keep Alabama and Grizzard from scoring at the other end. The Tide hit 11 straight free throws over the final 7:18 and 20 of 22 in the second half for their 14th straight home win. Maurice Williams added 15 points and four second-half steals for Alabama while hitting all eight from the line. Dudley also had 10 rebounds. ``We've been winning games, but tonight we really executed,'' Williams, a Mississippi native, said. ``It was a fun battle.'' Derrick Zimmerman had 12 points for the Bulldogs and Michael Ignerski added 10. Patterson, meanwhile, became the school's 24th player to reach 1,000 points. Both teams got hot in the second half in shooting and tempers. Mississippi State shot 55.6 percent from the floor after halftime, but Alabama was even better at 59.3 percent. Both teams were called for a pair of second-half technicals. Stansbury and his bench actually, the team's sports psychologist Greg Ellis got back-to-back technicals, which Alabama turned into six points with 14:56 left. Shortly after that, Grizzard was called for complaining over a non-call after contact under the basket. The normally mellow Walker later got a technical for hanging on the rim. ``We like to see Kenny like that,'' Antoine Pettway said. ``We want him to be more aggressive. ``Tonight, he came out like a maniac.'' Gottfried said the Tide played more zone defense than they had all season. ``They're very quick,'' he said. ``I felt we had to keep them away from the basket.'' It worked. Austin, from nearby York, was just 1-of-3 in the first half after coming in averaging 20.8 points in league play. ``In the zone, you have to hit the open shots and we couldn't come back,'' Patterson said.