STARKVILLE — Mississippi State turned in one of its better offensive efforts of the year Wednesday.
Unfortunately for the Maroon and White faithful, the Bulldogs without a doubt simultaneously played its worst basketball on the defensive end.
Despite MSU playing relatively stout defense in its previous five games, LSU, ranked the eighth most efficient offense nationally according to KenPom.com, decimated the Bulldogs’ halfcourt defense, shooting 62 percent in a 92-80 victory at Humphrey Coliseum.
“It was very frustrating. When you score 80 points, you should be in a very close game,” MSU coach Ben Howland said. “We just did not do the job on the defensive end of the floor and we made a ton of mistakes.”
LSU’s Cameron Thomas, who leads all freshmen around the country in scoring, gave MSU fits by scoring 25 points, while Javonte Smart contributed 22 points and 11 assists en route to a double-double.
“He looked like a lottery pick today,” Howland said of Thomas. “He’s my vote for SEC freshman of the year, my goodness.”
Normally heavily reliant on the backcourt combination of D.J. Stewart and Iverson Molinar for offensive output, the Bulldogs received one of the more balanced all-around scoring efforts they’ve had in conference play with four MSU players scoring double figures, amazingly with Stewart not being one of them. Tolu Smith had a team-high 24 points on a 10-of-11 shooting effort while grabbing 10 rebounds for his sixth double-double of the year.
“We didn’t have the right defensive tendencies,” Smith said. “You have to give them credit; they shot the ball really well and were really efficient.”
While sitting at 11-10 overall and 5-7 in Southeastern Conference play pretty much halts any hope the Bulldogs have of earning an at-large NCAA tournament bid barring a ridiculous late-season run, another freshman broke through that could provide fans a glimmer of hope into the future.
One game after scoring a career-high nine points, freshman Derek Fountain surpassed his previous mark with 20 points, 15 of which came in the first half.
“I thought he had a great first half in particular,” Howland said. “In terms of playing with poise. I was proud of how he’s developed and how he’s played for us. You can see he has a very bright future ahead of him.”
Molinar (16) and Deivon Smith (12) were the other Bulldogs in double figures. As a team, MSU shot 54 percent from the field.
The first 10 minutes of action provided a relatively fast pace, with MSU scoring on its first six offensive possessions. Turnovers have decimated offensive momentum for most of the season, especially the last two contests after MSU gave the ball away 20-plus times. MSU only turned it over twice in the first 10 minutes, but eventually committed 15 giveaways, off which LSU scored 26 points.
At halftime, LSU led 41-39 after Deivon Smith narrowed the gap with a buzzer-beating 3-pointer. MSU shot 57 percent in the half but allowed LSU to shoot 56.7 percent. Allowing the Tigers to convert 65 percent of their shots in the second half sunk any hope of securing a victory
“We were really poor defensively, inexplicably,” Howland said. “We gave up so many baskets. I looked at the stat sheet and they had 24 points in transition. That’s, like, crazy. I was really disappointed in our transition defense.”
MSU is back in action at noon on Saturday against Vanderbilt at Humphrey Coliseum.
“This defense had been so good (in its last five games),” Howland said. “But we really got hurt tonight in transition, there’s no excuse for it. But I assure you, that won’t be a long term problem.”
DAWG NOTES: MSU freshman Cameron Matthews did not play in Wednesday’s contest, a move Howland called “a coach’s decision.” Howland said he elected to give Matthews’ minutes to Fountain instead to play the hot hand.
Hodge is the former sports editor for The Dispatch.
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