STARKVILLE — Mississippi State looked finished several times Tuesday night, not the least of which came when the Bulldogs trailed Texas by four points with 15 seconds left in regulation.
On each occasion, MSU pulled itself up off the mat and managed to force overtime in a game they were behind by double digits in the second half. But through a combination of poor outside shooting, a dearth of defensive stops or questionable officiating, the No. 25 Bulldogs just could not pull ahead of the Longhorns and fell 87-82 in their last game of the season at Humphrey Coliseum.
“They care. They care about each other, they care about their craft, they care about this team, they want to win,” MSU head coach Chris Jans said. “When it doesn’t work out the way you want it to, it hurts. Our locker room was very somber, to say the least. We’ve lost plenty of games this year, but that was a hard one to swallow for all of us.”
The Bulldogs (20-10, 8-9 Southeastern Conference) started the game strong and led for almost the entire first half. A transition 3-pointer from Riley Kugel, followed by an RJ Melendez entry pass to KeShawn Murphy put MSU up 12-4 after seven minutes. But Texas completely took away Josh Hubbard in the first half. The star sophomore guard attempted just two shots in the half and was held scoreless until early in the second.
The Longhorns (17-13, 6-11) turned the tide shortly before halftime, entering the break on an 11-0 run that took them from a six-point deficit to a five-point lead. MSU’s only consistent offensive players in the first half were Melendez, who made three 3-pointers, and Shawn Jones, who had eight points and two big offensive rebounds in a two-and-a-half minute span.
“Some nights it’s your night. Some nights it’s not your night,” Jones said. “We’re just playing basketball. Having a love and passion for the game is what allowed the scoring to be shown tonight.”
In the second half, the Bulldogs’ 3-point defensive struggles resurfaced, although many of the shots Tre Johnson and Tramon Mark made were well contested. Texas was 6-for-8 from behind the arc and shot 56.5 percent overall in the half, building its lead as high as 12 points. Johnson and Mark combined for 47 points on 17-for-29 from the floor and 10-for-15 from deep.
“(Johnson) has been doing that the whole season,” Melendez said. “We just missed some scout assignments on him and left him open for a couple shots, let him get in rhythm. After as good a player as he is catches a rhythm, it’s kind of hard to stop him and get him off.”
A balanced attack from MSU brought the hosts back. Hubbard did not have an efficient night, but he began to find his spots. KeShawn Murphy started to get some of his signature floaters and short jumpers to fall. Kugel, who did not start the game well, made his presence felt on both ends of the floor.
“He hasn’t really proven to us that he’s capable of doing that very often, of not getting off to a great start and then changing it and having some runs where he’s more productive,” Jans said. “The thing tonight (that) made me stick with him was he was first to the floor a couple times for some loose balls that I just don’t ever remember him doing. I’ve been on him about it, and he showed people his strength in his core and his athleticism and his fight. He was defending.”
The Bulldogs seemed incapable of getting closer than three points behind until Murphy’s layup with a minute and 15 seconds on the clock. Down two possessions with the shot clock off, Hubbard made a pair of free throws, then Melendez stole the ensuing inbound pass and dished to Kugel for a game-tying layup. Insofar as momentum exists in basketball, MSU had all of it heading into overtime, and Jans said he noticed some long faces on the Longhorns’ bench.
Texas, though, forced the Bulldogs to play from behind for the entire extra session, taking the lead on its first trip down the floor. After a Hubbard miss on the other end, Mark’s 3-pointer put the Longhorns up five. MSU managed to even things up again on a Kugel 3-point play in the final minute, but a tough foul on Hubbard led to the free throw that gave Texas the lead for good.
Six players scored in double figures for the Bulldogs, but it was not enough. MSU closes out the regular season Saturday at Arkansas.
“We’re not perfect players. We’re not going to win all of them,” Jones said. “A lot of ticky-tack fouls cost us the game, and us just not playing well down the stretch.”
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