STARKVILLE – Mississippi State’s men’s basketball team was looking for a tiny step forward. Instead, the Bulldogs took a gigantic leap backward.
Seven days after ending a five-game losing streak with a home victory over Jacksonville, the Bulldogs returned to the depths Tuesday night, bottoming out in a 66-47 loss to McNeese State.
“Right now, we have some fractures on our team,” said MSU coach Rick Ray. “We don’t know how to win. The reason we don’t know how to win is that we haven’t won. Right now, when we have adversity, we don’t know how to battle through adversity.”
The Bulldogs (6-6) were never competitive against McNeese State, which entered with just one win over a Division-I opponent. In the Cowboys’ last game against a major conference foe, they dropped an 80-39 decision to Baylor. The Cowboys had no such problems against the Bulldogs, however, racing out to a lead that reached as many as 17 points in the first half. McNeese State held the Bulldogs to just 41 percent shooting, and MSU connected on just four of its 15 attempts from three-point range.
“We just never got into it,” said MSU point guard I.J. Ready, who with 10 points. “We had zero energy to start the game, and we can’t put our finger on why that is. We have to get it figured out amongst our teammates so that we are ready next time out. It seems like we get excited to play good teams and we can’t get any energy for anybody else.”
Offensive struggles, both in efficiency and ballhandling, plagued the Bulldogs from the start. MSU turned the ball over 10 times and only two MSU players – guard Craig Sword led the Bulldogs with 11 – reached double digits in scoring. The 47 points represented MSU’s lowest point total of a rapidly crumbling season. Previously MSU had averaged just 54 points per game during the five-game skid, but those problems appeared to be fixed after a 70-point showing against Jacksonville. Those old habits resurfaced Tuesday night, and brought with them another tough loss.
“The two teams are basically mirror images of each other,” said McNeese State coach Dave Simmons. “We have struggled shooting the ball this year, and so have they. Whichever team could shoot the best had a chance to win tonight.
“We got off to a fast start and combined with the fact that they’ve lost some games here, we knew that was a good thing for us.”
After McNeese State took a 36-23 lead into the halftime break, the Bulldogs cut the lead to as little as 11 but never got within single digits in the second half. Mines State posted its biggest lead at 23 points, leading 53-30 with eight minutes to go. MSU never led in the game, and McNeese opened the game on an 8-0 run.
“We have a problem as a team right now just finding five guys that we can count on consistently to start the game with,” said Ray. “When a team like McNeese State comes in here, you give them confidence when you allow them to get off to great starts.”
It’s the latest stinging loss in a season full of them for MSU, which started off at 5-0 before dropping six of its last seven games. That poor stretch now includes a 14-point home loss to Arkansas State and the latest setback, the blowout loss to McNeese State.
“We can’t even tell you what the problem is,” said Sword, whose 11 points were a season-high. “It seems like not everybody is into it right now. We have to figure things out.”
The Cowboys were led by a quartet of players in double digits. That included a game-high 20 points from guard Desharick Guidry, 13 from forward Jamaya Burr, 12 from forward Austin Lewis and 11 from reserve guard Matthew Moss.
McNeese State, which entered the night shooting just 29 percent as a team from three-point range, connected on eight of its 17 shots from distance.
The Bulldogs were paced in scoring by Sword and Ready, who scored 11 and 10, respectively. Freshman Oliver Black added nine for the Bulldogs, who will next host ACC foe Florida State on Friday night.
For Ray, the upcoming game against FSU will be a test for his team’s effort level.
“My first two years here, everybody complimented us on how hard we went out and competed,” said Ray. “For whatever reason, I don’t think we do that anymore.”
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