Despite Carter's excellence, LSU loses at No. 24 Mississippi State

STARKVILLE, Mississippi – The LSU Tigers led for almost 20 minutes against the No. 24 Mississippi State Bulldogs but the torrid shooting of the Bulldogs was too much to overcome in the final 15 minutes as State came away with an 81-69 win at Humphrey Coliseum Saturday.

State shot 64.0 percent in the second half (16-of-25) and finished the game at 29-of-51 (56.9 percent) with seven treys and 16-of-22 from deep.

LSU more than held its own in the first half as Cam Carter, returning to Starkville for the first time since he played for the Bulldogs as a freshman in 2021-22, scored 18 first half points including four treys as the Tigers had a 37-35 advantage at the break.

LSU trailed only briefly in the first half at 2-0 and 4-3 before the second of Carter’s three-pointers gave LSU a 6-4 lead at the 18:30 mark. Mississippi State was able to tie the game on four occasions in the half but LSU was able to keep the advantage throughout the first 20 minutes from there.

All that was happening with Corey Chest not dressing with a foot issue and Vyctorius Miller only playing seven minutes early after a leg injury and not returning in the game.

LSU shot 41.2 percent in the first half (14-of-34) with five treys and 4-of-5 at the line with just five turnovers. State was 13-of-26 from the field with three treys after starting 0-of-7 from deep.

In the second half State tied the game twice before taking the lead for the first time on the third of three free throws by Josh Hubbard (44-43) at the 18:15 mark. The Tigers would get one final lead at 47-46 with 16:08 to play on a Mike Williams second chance three pointer.

From there, State went on a 10-3 run, forcing an LSU timeout, and taking a 60-53 advantage. State would eventually take the game to double digits in the final six minutes. LSU did cut the game to seven points and had a chance to get the margin down to five, but couldn’t convert and the Bulldogs were able to hold the advantage the rest of the way.

Hubbard did most of the second half damage for LSU in the second half with 20 points and finished with 30 points on 9-of-18 overall shooting with two treys and 10-of-11 from the free throw line. Riley Kugel added 12.

Carter finished with 23 points on 9-of-16 shooting that included 5-of-10 at the three-point stripe. Daimion Collins had 10 points. Williams finished with eight points and Derek Fountain, seeing his first action since he became sick prior to the Oklahoma game two weeks ago, was 4-of-4 from the field with nine points.

LSU continued to drop its turnover rate in SEC play with nine miscues, but State was able to convert those into 13 points. State had a 40-22 advantage in points in the paint but LSU had a 13-8 advantage in offensive rebounds and that led to a 15-9 margin for the Tigers in second chance points.

The Tigers returned to Baton Rouge on Saturday night and will travel Monday to Lexington for a 6 p.m. CT game at Rupp Arena against Kentucky. LSU’s final home game of the regular season is Saturday, March 8, against Texas A&M.

Post-game quotes
LSU Head Coach Matt McMahon

On getting Cam Carter involved early…
“In the first half, we really wanted try and free him up off some screens. I thought he did a nice job in his movement without the ball there. We got him a pin-in corner three in transition. He got us off to a great start on the offensive end. I thought we got really good looks in the first half. Probably as a group, didn’t shoot it at a high enough percentage, specially behind the three-point line.”

On the defensive gameplan against Josh Hubbard…
“We tried to mix Dji Bailey and Curtis [Givens III] on him with some more size there in the first half. I thought they did a good job defensively of contesting his shots. In the second half, we just weren’t able to get enough stops. They shot 64% from the field in the second half and really hurt us in the paint. Hindsight is always 20/20, we probably should have trapped more. But we threw the kitchen sink at him, we iced ball screens, we trapped him, we hedged him, and then they went to the re-screen action there and he really got to his spots and rose up and hit some 17-footers there to extend the lead to 10.”

*LSU press release