Mississippi State survives scare from Murray State, 85-81

Mississippi State came oh-so-close to having deja vu on Wednesday night. But this time around, the Bulldogs had just enough to hold off Murray State, 85-81, at Humphrey Coliseum.

The visiting Racers used a 15-0 run in the second half and held an 81-79 lead following a Jacobi Wood 3 pointer with 1:43 left in regulation. But a Cameron Matthews dunk with 28 seconds remaining and three free throws by DJ Jeffries allowed the Bulldogs to survive and improve to 8-2 on the season.

The Bulldogs led Murray State (3-6) by 18 points early in the second half after holding a 12-point halftime advantage.

Matthews’ game-winner came off an ally oop pass from Dashawn Davis, a play they’ve run several times before.

“That’s the play Coach Jans drew up,” noted Matthews. “Thank God the play worked and everything worked out in our favor.”

Of course, running that play with the game on the line was a risky move, said Mississippi State head coach Chris Jans.

“If it didn’t work out there would be hundreds of people questioning me why we ran a lob play down one,” Jans remarked. “I didn’t think about that when we were going through the process of making a decision of what we need to run at that point. A lot of people had a lot of suggestions of what we should do and I am glad they do.

“(Assistant) James Miller suggested that we run that play and I gravitated to it right away. It is a play we’ve run a ton, not just here but at previous stops. It’s always been in our library, if you will, but I don’t think I’ve ever ran it when you are down one with under a minute to play. One of the reasons it made sense is we had run a set a little bit earlier and it was set up.”

Shakeel Moore led State with 16 points while Josh Hubbard added 15. Matthews finished with 13 points and Jeffries had a double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds.

Rob Perry had a game-high 21 points for Murray State while Wood finished with 18 and Quincy Anderson added 17 points. The Racers shot 51% for the game and made 12 of 23 from 3 point territory.

“I just feel like the execution was different,” Moore said. “Coach drew up some good plays down the stretch. We just strapped down on defense to keep them from trading baskets.”

Mississippi State shot 59% from the field and made 7 of 20 beyond the arc. The Bulldogs also made 24 of 34 at the foul line and outrebounded the Racers 29-20. Both teams has 10 turnovers on the night.

Both teams started out red-hot from the field in the opening minutes and State remained that way for most of the first half. The Bulldogs built a 17-7 advantage early on before the Racers cut the lead to 17-16.

At one point in the first half, State made 13 straight shots and led by as many as 15 in the opening half before settling for a 53-41 halftime advantage.

Mississippi State shot a sizzling 78% from the field in the first half, the highest ever in a half for Jans at Mississippi State, and made 6 of 10 from 3 point range. The Bulldogs made 11 of 15 at the line and out-rebounded Murray State 13-8 in the first half.

Murray State shot 48% in the first half and made 7 of 14 behind the arc. The Racers made 6 of 9 at the charity stripe and both teams had four first-half turnovers.

“That start to the game and even after halftime, I don’t know if I’ve ever coached in a game where it felt like that,” said Jans. “At one point in the first half during a timeout, I started chirping about not having any offensive rebounds. Then I looked at the stat sheet and we were 15 for 16 from the field. So it was okay dummy, there were no (offensive rebounds) available to them.

“I was shocked. I knew we were playing well but I didn’t realize we were 15 for 16. But I would have thought we would have had a bigger lead than we did.”

Mississippi State returns to action Sunday when the Bulldogs face North Texas in Tupelo for a 3 p.m. tipoff.