STARKVILLE — Nearly a half-hour after Mississippi State’s home basketball game against Arkansas State on Wednesday night, the Humphrey Coliseum was nearly empty.
There were the usual noises from brooms sweeping up the aisles between the rows of seats, sports writers banging out stories on their laptops, and folding chairs being stowed away.
There also was the sound of basketballs bouncing on the court and the clanging off the rim and the audible sighs of disappointed players, as MSU senior Trivante Bloodman, junior Craig Sword, sophomore I.J. Ready, and freshman Fallou Ndoye shot jump shots and worked to get better.
That’s what a 69-55 loss to Arkansas State will do to a team.
“It was pretty emotional. Everybody was kind of down,” MSU junior guard Fred Thomas said. “We knew we were going to win this game. But we didn’t do the little things, and it hurts.”
Arkansas State’s starters outscored MSU’s 65-15 to help the Red Wolves improve to 3-4. The Bulldogs shot 32 percent from the field against a team that entered the game with an RPI rating of 333. It was a setback Thomas and his teammates described as one of the worst defeats in three years under coach Rick Ray, who agreed.
“This is about as disappointing a loss as we’ve had since we’ve been here,” said Ray, who watched his team lose its fourth-straight game. “I thought our defensive effort was really lacking. The thing that’s troubling about that is that’s what we have to hang out hat on. Our offensive woes are well-documented.”
MSU failed to reach 60 points for the fourth game in a row. On Wednesday, MSU made 21 of 65 shots, including a 3-for-17 performance from 3-point range, which played into Arkansas State’s game plan that was designed to force the Bulldogs to take shots from long range.
“Mississippi State, let’s be honest, they’re not a real good shooting team,” said Arkansas State coach John Brady, whose team entered the game with victories against Belhaven and Central Arkansas, “so we played gap, position defense on them and just wanted to get a hand up on their shooters. We were able to do that for the most part.”
Arkansas State built a 12-4 lead, but MSU responded to grab a lead midway through the first half. After that, the Red Wolves recovered to take a 35-27 halftime lead and were never seriously challenged in the second half.
MSU’s starters — forwards Gavin Ware and Travis Daniels and guards Sword, Bloodman, and Thomas — combined for 15 points on 5-for-28 shooting. Less than two minutes into the game, Ray had seen enough and removed all five starters from the game and inserted four freshmen and senior forward Roquez Johnson. That group ripped off an 11-0 run to give MSU a 15-12 lead. When the starters returned, so did the offensive malaise.
Only Johnson (team-high 20 points) showed life offensively. If you take away his 8-for-11 showing, the Bulldogs made 13 of 54 shots.
For Ray, the story was defense, or the lack thereof from MSU.
“For us to have a chance to beat teams, I don’t care if it’s Arkansas State or LSU, we have to defend well,” Ray said. “I thought we got wrapped up in our offense way too much. We lacked defensive intensity. Our goal is to make people shoot contested jump shots, and there were way too many uncontested jump shots.”
Arkansas State turned those open looks into points time and again. The Red Wolves made 8 of 19 3-pointers, all eight by guards Sean Gardner and Cameron Golden. Gardner had a game-high 22 points and Golden added 15.
“That’s our offense. Any guy can get hot and have a big night,” Gardner said. “Tonight was my night.”
Arkansas State led for more than 32 minutes, and by as much as eight to 12 points in the second half.
Visibly disappointed following the loss, Ray was blunt about a losing streak that also includes setbacks at Tulane and Oregon State.
“We’ve got to start giving a return on the investment,” Ray said. “I think the administration, everybody’s invested in this program, and we have to start giving them a return on that investment.”
Brady was the opposite of disappointed. A Mississippi native who was an assistant coach at MSU under former coach Richard Williams in the late 1980s, Brady was excited about one of his team’s biggest wins.
“I went with Richard last night to eat,” Brady said. “Someone saw me and said, ‘Welcome home.’ That touched me. I went to grad school here. There’s a lot of me left in this place. It’s a special place.”
As for MSU, which hasn’t won since Nov. 24, Brady said, “They’ll be fine. They’re athletic. They just don’t shoot it well, but they’ll be fine.”
MSU will play South Carolina-Upstate on Saturday in Jackson.
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brandon Walker on Twitter @BWonStateBeat
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