State gets defensive and rolls past Southeastern Louisiana, 80-59

It wasn’t as pretty on the offensive end for Mississippi State on Tuesday against Southeastern Louisiana. But in true form for head coach Chris Jans and his squad, the Bulldogs clamped down on the defensive end when it mattered the most.

State held the visiting Lions to 35% shooting and forced 19 turnovers while grabbing an 80-59 win at Humphrey Coliseum. With the win, the Bulldogs improved to 3-0 on the season and have won 19 of the 20 all-time meetings with Southeastern Louisiana. Also, under Jans the Bulldogs are 16-1 in November games.

“I like where we’re at,” noted Jans of his defensive play so far. “If you’re really paying attention, it’s a little different scheme than last year because of our personnel. We’re more hyper-focused on turning the ball over and trapping the ball a little bit more than we have in the past.

“With our personnel I feel like that’s going to be a big part of who we are. We’re going to have to turn the other team over to make up for the deficiencies that we have when the ball is shot with the lack of size. I feel pretty good and we were better on the defensive glass tonight than we were the first two games.”

Josh Hubbard led the Bulldogs with 23 points, highlighted by a 4 of 8 showing from 3 point range, while Kanye Clary had 12 points, led by an 8 of 9 performance at the foul line. KeShawn Murphy had 10 points for State while Shawn Jones and Claudell Harris had nine and eight points, respectively.

Hubbard had 14 of his 23 points in the opening half and was 8 of 14 from the field. The sophomore also dished out five assists on the night.

“They played great defense in the first half, credit to them,” Hubbard remarked. “They applied pressure to all of us early. We just adjusted and I reacted to what the defense gave me. I think we all did a good job of that.”

Leading by just three at the half, State used a 12-2 run to provide some breathing room early in the final half. The Lions did manage to cut the deficit to 60-52 after a Sam Hines free throw midway through the half. But the Bulldogs responded with an 18-6 run to put the game on ice.

State shot 44% from the floor and made 7 of 28 beyond the arc. The Bulldogs made 19 of 26 at the line and had 11 turnovers. State also had 15 assists, nine steals and out-rebounded the Lions 41-37. Cameron Matthews led the Bulldogs with 13 rebounds and also had four assists and three steals.

Kam Burton paced the Lions (1-2) with 17 points while Hines added 14. As a team, Southeastern Louisiana shot 35% from the field and made 9 of 25 from 3 point territory. The Lions were 12 of 17 at the charity stripe and had 19 turnovers.

Southeastern Louisiana took an early 8-7 lead following a Sam Hines dunk with 14:15 remaining in the first half. However, that was the last lead of the half for the Lions as State responded and led 20-14 after a Hubbard four-point play with 11:36 left in the half.

The Bulldogs stretched the lead to as many as 11 at 40-29 following an RJ Melendez layup with 2:21 left in the opening half. But the Lions ended the half on an 8-0 spurt and State’s lead was only 40-37 at the break.

And with the way the Lions closed the first half, that naturally didn’t sit well with Jans.

“Certainly disappointed with the end of the half,” Jans recalled. “I remember it being 40-32 and that’s when it got funky to me. I didn’t realize it was that big of a run. But we didn’t put them in a good position, we as a staff, and calling plays that didn’t make any sense. We just didn’t take advantage of our personnel. I was mad and we didn’t defend and then they scored again.

“We got the game where we wanted near the end of the first half but we just didn’t finish it very well. And we’ve been getting out of the gate so strong but we didn’t tonight.”

The Bulldogs quickly got that message from Jans, which led to a quick start in the second half.

“We were playing to our opponents’ level, basically,” mentioned Jones. “Just keep hooping and we were not grinding. We had to get back to grinding, getting steals and getting on the floor. We had to make it messy for the other team.”

State shot just 44% in the first half and made 5 of 14 beyond the arc. The Bulldogs made 7 of 10 at the foul line and had four first-half turnovers. The Lions shot 41% from the field, 6 of 13 from 3 point range and 9 of 10 at the foul line. Southeastern Louisiana had seven turnovers in the half and held a 19-18 rebounding advantage.

Up Next

Mississippi State vs. Utah on Sunday in Southaven with a 3 p.m. tipoff. Utah is 3-0 on the season with wins over Alcorn State, Central Arkansas and Queens University.