Mississippi State drops conference opener on the road to USC
Mississippi State kept it close throughout the entire second half, but ultimately came up short against the South Carolina Gamecocks 68-62. The loss moves Mississippi State to 11-3 on the season.
The story of the game took place on the offensive boards, where the Bulldogs, a much bigger team that USC, gave up 15 offensive rebounds. The SEC’s leading rebounder, Jimmy Bell Jr., didn’t register a single rebound in the contest.
“We have zero chance to win games of this magnitude if we’re getting out rebounded like that,” said head coach Chris Jans postgame. “(It’s) sll I talked about with the team, at the end, in the locker room. We definitely talked about it in the timeouts. In the second half we had unbelievable stretches where we didn’t get any offensive rebounds, and ended up with…our worst defensive rebounding percentage all year long. They basically got half of their rebounds back, and if you would have told me that before the game, I would have said ‘no way.'”
Jans took account for his team’s efforts on the glass postgame.
“Well, what I just told them is that at the end of the day, I’m the teacher,” said Jans. “You know, I designed the practice and ran the practice for the most part, and my message is not working. It’s really not so much at times a lack of effort. It’s a lack of what I deem a mental discipline to do when the ball is shot.”
The Bulldogs shot 48% from the field to the Gamecocks’ 40%, but the three ball was the great equalizer. South Carolina went 8-23 from beyond the arc, while MSU shot just 3-13. Veteran point guard Dashawn Davis had a uncharacteristically bad outing and shot just 3-11 from the field.
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Foul trouble also hampered the Bulldogs in this one, as Tolu Smith fouled out in just his second game back in the rotation along with Cameron Matthews as time wound down. Shakeel Moore finished with four fouls as well, while Jimmy Bell Jr. finished with three.
Meechie Johnson led the way in scoring for the Gamecocks with 24 points while transfer guard Myles Stute poured in another 15 behind and impressive trio of three pointers. Mississippi State limited USC starting center B.J. Mack to one of his least productive efforts of the season, forcing the Wofford transfer to go 1-9 from the field and finish with just five points.
Mississippi State will have to move on quickly, as the Bulldogs can’t afford to dwell on the conference opening loss. MSU’s next three games are against Tennessee, Alabama and Kentucky, respectively. With the blemish of a Southern loss on their out of conference resume’, the Bulldogs would be digging themselves a hole with an 0-4 start to conference play.
Mississippi State hosts the Tennessee Volunteers January 10, on Wednesday, at Humphrey Coliseum. Tip off is scheduled for 6 p.m., and the game will be aired on the SEC Network.
