ATLANTA — Last Sunday, Mississippi State scored 59 points in a brutal loss against Southern, its second-straight loss after falling to Georgia Tech in Atlanta on Nov. 28.
On Saturday, the Bulldogs returned to Atlanta, this time at State Farm Arena, looking to flip the script from two weeks previous, and that they did.
In just the first half, MSU put up 62 points on a 6-1 Tulane team that allowed 75.4 points to opponents coming in, running the Green Wave out of the gym in an emphatic 106-76 win at Holiday Hoopsgiving.
Not only was Saturday the first time Mississippi State (7-2) scored 100 or more points in a game under Chris Jans, it’s the first time the Bulldogs did so since scoring 103 points against BYU on Dec. 29, 2018.
It was a scoring exhibition that Bulldogs fans haven’t seen from MSU teams under Jans, setting a new season high in first-half points. The Bulldogs 106 points were also the most points scored away from Starkville since 2005.
That first half was fueled by freshman Josh Hubbard, who shot 7-of-8 from the field and 5-of-6 from three, finishing with a career-high 22 points in the first half. Hubbard finished with 22 points overall on 70 percent shooting from the field.
Mississippi State wasn’t just knocking down shots, but knocking down shots with efficiency, shooting 67.6 percent from the field and 58.8 percent (10-of-17) from three in the half.
The Bulldog lead stretched out to as many as 30 points in the first half, but ballooned to 39 within 11 minutes to play in the second half. Five players finished in double-figures in scoring as Jans was able to get plenty of minutes for his bench players.
Twelve different players got on the scoresheet overall, but it was more than just scoring that stuck out in what was a blowout game from the 10-minute mark in the first half on.
D.J. Jeffries, Cam Matthews and Dashawn Davis had six or more assists each, Jeffries leading the team with seven assists in the win.
KeShawn Murphy led in the battle of the boards with eight rebounds for MSU, and Davis had three or more steals for the third-straight game, finishing with a career-high five.
There was no mistaking what transpired on Saturday afternoon in downtown Atlanta. Mississippi State came to play and came to erase a bad stretch of basketball, and Tulane was its victim.
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