STARKVILLE – Mississippi State guard Josh Hubbard had only hit one shot from open play through 19 minutes and 11 seconds of the second half when he received the ball in the corner with his team down by one point. A first-half advantage of 16 points, during which he hit a record-setting nine three-pointers, had been erased, and he had been double-teamed out of action for much of the second half.
The Bulldogs, who led by as much as 18 in the contest, had trailed by seven with just under four minutes to go, but once again put its faith in Hubbard to hit a triple and restore the lead in the final minute of play.
Hubbard obliged.
“At the end, we ran a good play,” he said. “I got open, had the confidence to shoot it and knock it down.”
MSU took an 85-83 lead with 44 seconds left, still with plenty of work to do, but the team backed up the big shot. Achor Achor and Jamarion Davis-Fleming came up with blocks on back-to-back possessions to deny the Tigers a way back in, and Ja’Borri McGhee and Shawn Jones Jr. closed out the game at the free throw line to seal a 91-85 victory.
Team Win
Hubbard finished with a remarkable 46 points, just one shy of tying the all-time single-game record of 47 by Bailey Howell. His nine treys in the first half broke another program record for most three-point makes in a game, and boosted a 35-point first-half performance that earned a standing ovation from the crowd at Humphrey Coliseum.
“Insane, legendary performance,” Jones said of Hubbard after the game. “I mean, we’re three years in, a legendary performance, man, I already knew he was great. I tell him every day, he’s my favorite point guard in the world, and he keeps living up to it. He never let me down.”
“I go in the locker room at halftime and get the stat sheet, I’m like: he’s got 35?” head coach Chris Jans said, reflecting on the disbelief at the performance. “I knew obviously he was having a half, but 35 and as clean as it was with the efficiency, the shots he was making, it was a special half. Toward the end, I’m not going to lie… your brain at one point, I’m like: if we waste that half of his performance, it’s gonna be a shame. We didn’t. Down seven with 3:44 left, it didn’t look promising, with the air out of The Hump, and rightfully so. We’d given up a huge lead, but couldn’t be prouder of a group of young men that stayed together.”
The halftime lead of 49-33 disintegrated in just over 10 minutes. Auburn took its first lead at the 8:50 mark on a shot from KeShawn Murphy, the MSU transfer whose presence brought about loud boos from the home crowd on every touch. With an 80-73 lead at 3:56, it felt as though the Bulldogs had let another one slip in what has become a rollercoaster season. But the team found a way.
Jayden Epps contributed 13 points in the second half, five of which came when it was MSU’s time to mount a comeback. He hit a three-point shot that set the stage for Hubbard to tie the game with his first make from open play of the half, and eventually retake the lead in the final seconds.
“It’s adversity, we’ve been in that position before, and we stick together,” Jones said.
“They were huge, especially (Jones) here knocking down those free throws at the end to seal the win,” Hubbard added. “Having those guys, they let me get hot, and then they support me and they seal the game. It tells the type of people we have on this team, and that’s just the unselfishness that we love about each other, that we carry and that we cherish every day.”
History Maker, Game Changer
Hubbard’s 46-point outing was the second consecutive game in which he set a new program record. He became MSU’s all-time leader in three-pointers as part of a 32-point performance in a road win over Ole Miss on Sunday, and now has three games in a row with at least 31 points.
He was already on pace to etch himself into MSU’s history books, but more than the personal accolades, Hubbard has been hungry for wins.
From January 10 through February 11, the Bulldogs went 1-8 in SEC play with several frustrating losses. The squad had to keep moving through the struggles, and for the last week, the persistence has paid off for both the group as a whole and for Hubbard, who is setting a Top 10 scoring pace in the country.
“The biggest thing is getting the win,” he said on Wednesday. “That’s the goal every time we prepare and practice. We put a lot of pain, we put a lot of sweat into preparation, and the two days before games. That’s the common goal, each and every day, to get a win.”
As the clock ticked down on the night, and MSU’s win was all but secure in the final few seconds, Hubbard stood next to his former teammate Murphy and shouted to the student section while gesturing to the bold letters across his chest, reading “STATE.” There was no question on the night that it was his house, but for him, the win was still all about “State.”
“It looked pretty dire there, in that timeout, and the coach is gonna try and get them moving in the right direction, but he was doing the same thing,” Jans said of the huddle before the final four minutes. “I thought they were responsive to him. He could have easily got in his own little world and say, ‘I’m having an unbelievable night, if we lose, we lose,’ but he’s not built like that. Another example of him finding ways to show everybody what he’s all about.”
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