OXFORD — The balance that had been missing from Mississippi State’s offense for several weeks returned in a big way Saturday evening in enemy territory.
Head coach Chris Jans was counting on Claudell Harris, RJ Melendez and Riley Kugel to be solid offensive players when he added them last spring in the transfer portal. All three broke out of lengthy cold stretches to guide the No. 22 Bulldogs to an 81-71 win at No. 19 Ole Miss as MSU silenced the home crowd at SJB Pavilion and completed a regular-season sweep of its in-state rivals.
“When we’re not shooting the ball or getting much scoring from those three guys, it puts a lot of pressure on everybody else,” Jans said. “Can we win without them scoring? Yeah, (but) it’s going to be really difficult. It’s much easier for us to win when we have more contributions from more people, and I’m just happy for them. I’m happy for those three to play (the way) they’re capable of.”
The Bulldogs (18-7, 6-6 Southeastern Conference) and Rebels (19-7, 8-5) entered Saturday’s showdown trending in opposite directions. MSU had lost six of its last nine games following a 2-0 start to SEC play, while Ole Miss had won three straight including an upset of Kentucky. After knocking down a pair of 3-pointers to start the game, the Bulldogs went cold and the hosts opened up an eight-point lead just more than five minutes in.
But then MSU’s much-maligned perimeter defense helped turn things around. The Rebels knocked down four of their first five shots from behind the arc, then missed 17 of their next 18. Some of that was luck on the Bulldogs’ end, with open looks simply not falling, but the visitors did do a better job of closing out on shooters and staying in front of the play.
“Maybe they were just off, I don’t know yet,” Jans said. “We’d been getting a lot of criticism for our 3-point defense, and rightfully so. Tonight, it was obviously much better.”
MSU worked its way back from the early deficit by rebounding well and getting good looks in the paint. Kugel made his first start since Dec. 14 in place of Harris, but Harris provided a spark coming off the bench. He scored seven straight points for the Bulldogs as they pulled ahead late in the first half, then hit a transition 3-pointer on MSU’s final possession of the half to put his team ahead 40-33.
Jans went with a small lineup to close the first half because Michael Nwoko and KeShawn Murphy had both picked up two fouls. Against an Ole Miss team lacking a true center, it worked as the Bulldogs ended the half on a 13-2 run and never trailed after that.
“We played some small lineups against them the first time too,” Jans said. “We like when (Cameron Matthews) is at the five sometimes because of his quarterback ability and just his IQ running the offense. That was big. We were able to survive some foul issues in the first half.”
Melendez helped spark another big run in the second half, scoring 10 of his game-high 17 points after halftime. A Shawn Jones Jr. dunk with nine minutes left extended the MSU lead to 19, and as Rebels head coach Chris Beard took a timeout, several of the home fans began heading for the exits. Jones scored just four points, but his plus/minus of +22 was easily the best of any player on either team.
Jans improved to 5-1 against Ole Miss in his three years in Starkville, and the Bulldogs improved to 6-2 in true road games this season — as many road wins as MSU had in the last two years combined.
“(Jans) pushes us mentally every day to our limits,” Melendez said. “The crowd could be loud, but he’s on us every single day, so that’s kind of normal for us. We just block out the crowd and focus on us.”
The Rebels managed to close the gap but could never pull within single digits. Kugel and Harris joined Melendez in double figures, as did Josh Hubbard and Murphy.
The Bulldogs held Ole Miss without an offensive rebound in the first half and finished the game with a 14-7 edge on the offensive glass. MSU looked like the more energetic and prepared team throughout the game, beating the Rebels to loose balls and out-leaping them on the boards.
Tuesday night brings the fourth top-10 opponent of the season to Humphrey Coliseum, with the Bulldogs hosting No. 8 Texas A&M.
“They were playing better than we were heading into this game,” Jans said. “It was one of those burn the boats games. We talked a lot about how we needed to outplay them. They don’t beat themselves. They stay in games and they figure out ways to win. We needed to flip the script on them, and I’m super proud of our guys. That was an intense game, and they stuck together.”
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