Believe it or not, Mississippi State actually led Arkansas 18-5 at one point Tuesday.
Then all hell broke loose.
The Razorbacks outscored the Bulldogs 56-27 the rest of the way en route to a 61-45 victory at Bud Walton Arena, capitalizing off of a season-high 26 Bulldog turnovers.
“We’re not going to beat anybody in Division I with 26 turnovers,” Mississippi State coach Ben Howland said. “… That’s just insurmountable. You can’t overcome that and still win the game.”
Nine of the 10 Mississippi State players suited up had at least one turnover, with Abdul Ado the lone Bulldog that stayed giveaway free. Forward Tolu Smith had a team-high five turnovers in the post, followed by Iverson Molinar and D.J. Stewart who committed four apiece.
“I think in Tolu’s case, he had some turnovers when we’re asking him to handle the ball in the middle of the floor, so he had a couple that were unfortunate,” Howland said. “They’re doubling off of him, so they’re saying, ‘You have to handle the ball and make good decisions with it.’ But some of the other ones, DJ accidentally kicked off his foot in front of our bench, I think that was just fatigue … It was really tough we didn’t handle that part of the game better.”
Smith was the only player for the Bulldogs in double figures (10). MSU (10-9, 4-6 SEC) shot 30.6 percent from the floor, its second-worst shooting percentage of the season, and scored its third-lowest amount of points this season. The Bulldogs were 5-of-19 beyond the arc and were dominated on the glass 45-34.
“The bottom line is we were outboarded so bad because we missed so many shots,” Howland said. “When we’re missing that many shots, that’s a lot of missed opportunities. That’s where we were beat so badly … We have to have guys knock down some wide open looks.”
Entering Tuesday, Howland said his defense was in the best place it’s been all season. That rang true after the Bulldogs held the Razorbacks, which led the Southeastern Conference in scoring offense averaging 84 points per game, to a paltry three points in the first 11 minutes.
Then MSU started booting the ball all over the gym and gave up a 23-4 run to close the half en route to a six-point deficit at the break. While the turnovers were crippling to the Bulldogs, they failed to take advantage of Arkansas’ misgivings, scoring zero points on 10 Razorback first-half turnovers. Arkansas (14-5, 6-4) committed 17 turnovers on the night but the Bulldogs only turned that into four points, while the Hogs scored 25 points off MSU’s giveaways.
“It’s very disappointing,” Stewart said. “When you get those turnovers, you have to capitalize off of them and make them pay, like they did to us.”
The loss snapped a six-game winning streak over Arkansas for MSU.
“We have to have a short term memory,” Stewart said. “We have to learn from our mistakes and go back to the drawing board.”
Four Razorback players were in double figures, including Connor Vanover (13), Moses Moody (13), Davonte Davis (10) and Justin Smith (10). Arkansas shot 35.9 percent from the field and 2-of-17 from long range while dominating points in the paint 34-12.
MSU concludes a four-game SEC road trip against South Carolina Saturday.
“These kids are going to continue to battle and continue to fight,” Howland said. “But they’re obviously disappointed about what happened tonight.”
Hodge is the former sports editor for The Dispatch.
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