Mississippi State rolls past Northwestern 66-57 to claim Basketball Hall of Fame Classic championship

Throughout the preseason, Mississippi State head coach Chris Jans remarked often that Josh Hubbard doesn’t act like a normal freshman. That was on display again Sunday afternoon as the Bulldogs captured the Basketball Hall of Fame Classic in Uncasville, Conn.

Hubbard poured in a career-high 29 points to lead Mississippi State over Northwestern 66-57. The Bulldogs improved to 5-0 on the young season while Northwestern dropped to 4-1.

“My teammates trust me,” Hubbard explained. “We built a lot of chemistry over the summer. And we practice hard. We practice really hard. God blessed me with some ability, and we have a great coach who’s a leader that knows how to lead us to wins.”

Hubbard was 8 of 13 from the floor, including a 4 of 8 showing from 3 point range, and was 7 of 7 at the line. Hubbard was also named the tournament MVP and also had 13 points Saturday in State’s win over Washington State on Saturday.

“He was a big reason why we won the game,” said Mississippi State head coach Chris Jans. “The kid has a ton of confidence. I don’t get tired of talking about him. He has earned these moments because of his work ethic and the work he put in prior to coming here. He was ready for this stage.”

Dashawn Davis had 11 for the Bulldogs while Shakeel Moore added eight. Along with Hubbard, Davis was also selected on the all-tournament team. For the game, the Bulldogs shot 47% from the floor and made 8 of 22 from 3 point territory. State had 15 turnovers, just four in the second half. The Bulldogs out-rebounded the Wildcats 34-28 with DJ Jeffries grabbing a season-high 10 boards and Cameron Matthews adding eight rebounds.

“It always needs to get better,” noted Jans of the rebounding. “It is all about opportunities available for rebounds and how many opportunities we are getting. It is about the numbers and percentages (with rebounds) and we’ve showed our guys those percentages.”

Ty Berry led the Wildcats with 14 points while Ryan Langborg and Brooks Barnhizer each had 13. Northwestern was held to 38% shooting and made just 6 of 26 beyond the arc.

In the second half, Davis led the charge initially to get the Bulldogs back on top. He scored 10 straight during one stretch and his layup put State up 39-38 with 14:10 left in regulation, their first lead of the game. After Northwestern took a 48-47 lead on a Barnhizer 3 pointer, the Bulldogs put the game away with a 17-3 run, which included 10 points from Hubbard over that spurt.

“We just wanted to stay positive,” Hubbard said. “We didn’t hang our heads down because we knew we had a lot of ballgame left. We just kept with the gameplan and adjusted a few things to stop their momentum.”

Mississippi State fell behind 15-3 at the start of the game, largely due to turnovers. But thanks to Hubbard, the Bulldogs kept chipping away at the lead. State eventually cut the deficit to 25-22 following a 3 point play by Shawn Jones with 1:42 remaining in the half. Hubbard then knocked down a 3 pointer to close out the half and the Bulldogs trailed 29-27.

“It was like deja vu,” Jans said of State’s start. “I sat in this gym yesterday watching Northwestern get out to a 22-2 lead on Rhode Island and they did it to us today, too. We were defending fine but Northwestern was defending at an elite level. As the game went on we obviously got better and we tried to get our bigs to loosen up.

“Sometimes when you start a game it is like going outside when it is cold. You have to adjust and we knew they were a well-coached and well-schooled team.”

In the first half, State shot 45% and made 5 of 11 behind the 3 point arc. The Bulldogs were 4 of 5 at the foul line and had 11 first-half turnovers. Northwestern shot 38% in the opening half and made 3 of 12 from 3 point territory. Both teams have 14 rebounds in the first half while the Wildcats outscored State 12-2 in points off turnovers.

“We only had 20 shots on goal at halftime,” added Jans. “But we got better at the turnover percentage considering how we started and Northwestern had a lot to do with some of those turnovers. But in the second half we got a bunch more shots at the goal.”

Mississippi State will get a few days off before returning to action on Friday. The Bulldogs will play host to Nicholls for a 1 p.m. tipoff at Humphrey Coliseum. The Bulldogs have now recorded three wins over Power 5 teams with victories over Northwestern, Arizona State and Washington State.

“Power 5 wins don’t matter from a numbers perspective,” Jans mentioned. “But it is still our third Power 5 win in a very young season. We challenged our guys but we wanted to put ourselves in position to challenge our guys (with the schedule). We won’t know how big these wins are until the end of the season, though.”