ATLANTA — Mississippi State’s Ben Hansbrough turned to Alabama’s Mykal Riley and offered an observation.

“That sounds like a tornado,” Hansbrough said.

Not the typical conversation you’ll hear during overtime of an SEC quarterfinal.

But Mississippi State’s 69-67 win over Alabama on Friday was far from the ordinary game. A tornado ripped through downtown Atlanta with 2:11 remaining, sending bolts and insulation onto the Georgia Dome floor. Players scattered as the scoreboards swayed in the wind and siding fell off the dome. Many of them called family members as they gathered in the locker room.

“All of a sudden everything started moving and people started running,” Riley said.

The drama didn’t stop after an hourlong delay. Hansbrough missed two free throws with seven seconds left and Mississippi State (22-9) leading by two points, giving Alabama (16-15) one more chance.

Charles Rhodes blocked Riley’s shot out of bounds with 0.5 seconds remaining. On the inbounds play, Riley — who sent the game into overtime with a last-second 3-pointer — lofted a potential game-winner that went in and out of the basket. Riley said he thought the shot was going in. So did his coach.

“My heart said, ‘That is in the basket,’” Alabama coach Mark Gottfried said.

After the game, most of the talk surrounded the weather.

“We prepared for a lot of things, but we didn’t prepare for a tornado,” Mississippi State Rick Stansbury said. “For a moment, it made you forget all about the game.”

n Arkansas 81, Vanderbilt 75

NCAA tournament? What NCAA tournament? The Razorbacks claim they came to the Georgia Dome to win the SEC title, not clinch an NCAA berth.

But they likely did the latter after knocking off the Commodores in the quarterfinals. Arkansas (21-10) will meet No. 4 Tennessee in the first semifinal today at 1.

“Every time you watch TV, they’re talking about somebody else on the bubble and they never mention Arkansas,” said point guard Gary Ervin, who scored 18 points. “You know, not one second when they don’t talk about us do we think we’re in. We don’t ever play like we’re in the tournament.”

Alex Gordon scored 22 points and Shan Foster added 14 for the Commodores (26-7), who got outrebounded 45-24.

“Our rebounding effort was pathetic,” Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings said.

Arkansas coach John Pelphrey admitted “you need a little luck” to beat the top-seeded Vols.

“Tennessee has tremendous speed,” he said. “It’s hard for anybody to defend them. Tyler Smith is just awesome.”

Georgia vs. Kentucky, late: The winner plays Mississippi State in today’s second semifinal.

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