Josh Hubbard dishes on how LSU win could spark Mississippi State in 2024 SEC Tournament

Mississippi State earned a huge win over LSU in the second round of Thursday’s SEC Tournament. The Bulldogs fell behind early, trailing by as many as nine points in the first half, before rallying for a 70-60 victory.

Freshman Josh Hubbard helped spark Mississippi State in the second half, scoring 14 of his game-high 24 points over the final 20 minutes. Afterwards, Hubbard spoke with the SEC Network about the keys to the win.

“You know, our past few games, we were on a little losing streak. But you know, we had confidence in each other,” Josh Hubbard said. “We just wanted to stay positive. We knew we always had a chance against anybody in the country, as long as we play together and stay positive.”

Mississippi State had dropped four straight games entering the SEC Tournament, before earning a critical victory that should help their NCAA Tournament chances.

Hubbard is confident that the Bulldogs can continue to make some noise in Nashville, as well as in the Big Dance, if they are able to secure a bid.

“It was a little spark. We know that we can compete against anybody,” he said. “We just had to come out, compete and play hard. And as long as we do that, we can beat anybody.”

Josh Hubbard was only 1-for-6 from the field in the first half, before connecting on 5 of 10 shots in the second half. He credited his teammates for continuing to encourage him to let it fly.

“My teammates kept me positive. I was missing a few shots. I was a little frustrated. Tolu [Smith] was frustrated. We all were frustrated,” Josh Hubbard said. “But that’s what we do as a team. We lift each other up when we’re down.”

Mississippi State outscored LSU 48-31 over the final 20 minutes. Up next, the Bulldogs will face No. 1 seed Tennessee on Friday at 1 p.m.

Mississippi State coach Chris Jans uses press to thwart LSU in second half

Mississippi State stared down a 29-22 halftime deficit, knowing it might leave its NCAA Tournament fate up to chance if it couldn’t turn things around against LSU at the SEC Tournament on Thursday afternoon.

Luckily, the shooters got going for the Bulldogs and a simple defensive change really altered the outcome. Mississippi State outscored LSU 48-31 in the second half to win 70-60.

“We were 1-for-10 at halftime from three and I was pretty confident that we’d shoot it better in the second half,” coach Chris Jans said on the SEC Network after the game. “Fortunately we did. I didn’t know what the numbers were until I looked at the box score.

“Then we talked about turning them over. We forced 18 turnovers. We wanted to score off our defense. We spent a lot of time the last three days trying to rev our motors up and play like we used to, to be honest with you, earlier in the season. I thought the guys really responded and defended and rebounded and did well enough to win.”