DENTON, Texas — D.J. Stewart Jr. made a 3-pointer with two seconds remaining to lead Mississippi State to a 68-67 win over short-handed Richmond in the NIT quarterfinals on Thursday night.
Trailing 67-65, Mississippi State forward Abdul Ado missed two free throws with 16 seconds left, and then fouled out to send Andre Gustavson to the line at 8.7. Gustavson missed the front end of a 1-and-1 to set up Stewart’s winner.
Richmond was not able to get a shot off before the buzzer as Stewart secured the tipped inbound pass near midcourt.
Stewart finished with 22 points, making all 10 of his free throw attempts for Mississippi State (17-14). Iverson Molinar had 18 points and seven rebounds, Ado added 11 rebounds and Javian Davis had seven rebounds.
Mississippi State was 16 of 18 from the line — with its only misses coming from Ado in the closing seconds.
Jacob Gilyard tied a season high with 22 points and had six assists for the Spiders (14-9). Matt Grace added 16 points.
Richmond was again without its top two leading scorers in Blake Francis (hip/back), 16.1 points per game, and Grant Golden (finger).
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This was generated by Automated Insights, http://www.automatedinsights.com/ap, using data from STATS LLC, https://www.stats.com
