TUPELO – The ball finally bounced Mississippi State’s way in the final minute against San Francisco.

Forward Brandon Walker missed the second free-throw attempt with a chance to tie it at the line, but the ball fell perfectly for Shawn Jones Jr. on the putback shot to give the Bulldogs their first lead of the game with 25 seconds left.

The Dons went down the court and got to the free-throw line themselves, hitting both to retake the lead 63-62 and prompting a timeout from MSU head coach Chris Jans. He drew up a quick play with nine seconds left, and the Bulldogs went back out to inbound the ball, only for Jones to turn over possession immediately for an easy layup.

65-62.

Down three, the Bulldogs had to call an audible. Jayden Epps, the leading scorer on the night with 21 points, got into the corner to throw up a prayer from beyond the arc, but missed with defenders all over him as MSU fell to 4-5 on the season.

The group has had to manage dramatic ups and downs through just nine games, going from celebrations in Atlanta just four days ago to pain with both defeat and the loss of star scorer Josh Hubbard to an ankle injury in the first half. It’s been a difficult series of emotions to navigate, and it’s something the team is having to manage on the fly.

“I think about it a lot, unfortunately, and about what to say,” Jans said when asked about managing the ups and downs. “Obviously, what I can do: ‘How can I help them more?’ In the end, it’s my responsibility. I didn’t say too much to them after this game. They were hurting; it was somber and quiet. It’s tough, and rightfully so.”

Jans talked about the lack of execution and what has gone on behind that, one notable moment being the final plays, where the Bulldogs had a foul to give and didn’t get to a San Francisco player until they were at the rim to make it a shooting foul, which put them back in front. Then came the final turnover from Jones, which made it a three-point game coming out of a timeout.

For a team that has struggled to string wins together, the Bulldogs have equally struggled in maintaining momentum in-game. That cost them again in Tupelo on Sunday when it looked as though the Bulldogs were capable of reaching the summit after a long climb from the opening minutes.

“They’ve all played basketball long enough, I’ve coached long enough now, and what you learn is you win and lose in a variety of ways,” Jans continued. “You never know how the game’s going to unfold, and this afternoon is one where we get off to a poor start, Josh goes down, and it takes the air out of the building, out of some of our team… And we just fought uphill all night long. At one point, I didn’t know if we were going to get back in striking distance, and fortunately, we did. We led for a grand total of 17 seconds… They were in complete control until winning time, until it was the most important lead to control, when the buzzer goes off, and we had a chance to steal one. It would have been a heck of a win for us considering the circumstances. How the game played out, and Josh went down. But unfortunately, we didn’t execute down the stretch. We just didn’t.”

In many ways, the Bulldogs have experienced the sort of adversity they were looking for when scheduling a hectic nonconference schedule against NCAA Tournament hopefuls. The ups and downs that have come their way are the sort of hurdles teams have to clear in order to play with the best of the best. But the mistakes and the inability to handle those moments have far outweighed the positives on display.

“We’re going to hopefully have a lot of close games, we have already, and I think we’ll probably have more,” Jans said. “We’ve got to figure out a way to put them in better positions, and those guys on the court in the most critical moments have to execute.”

The Bulldogs have a few days off this week before traveling to Salt Lake City for a game against Utah on Saturday at 9 p.m.