STARKVILLE — Chris Jans could sense that Mississippi State was reeling in the first few minutes of the second half and took a quick timeout to try and stop things from spiraling out of control.

The No. 22 Bulldogs, in search of an elusive signature win, held a one-point lead at halftime Tuesday night against No. 3 Florida on the strength of their defense and rebounding. But MSU turned the ball over on four of its first five second-half possessions as the Gators scored nine quick points to surge into the lead. The head coach hoped the timeout would allow his players to refocus and stem the tide, but instead the onslaught only continued for Florida.

“At that point, I was trying to get a rise out of them,” Jans said. “I was challenging them. I was a little shocked that that’s how we were playing. We just didn’t have the type of urgency and fight that we showed the majority of the first half, from where I sat. I may feel different when I see the film, but we let a couple made shots by them directly affect our energy in a negative way.”

The Bulldogs committed another turnover out of the timeout when KeShawn Murphy had the ball stolen by Thomas Haugh, and the Gators ultimately extended their run out of the half to 17 straight points. Jans had no choice but to use another timeout just a minute and 23 seconds after the previous one. By then, Florida had turned a back-and-forth game into a lopsided affair and defeated MSU, 81-68.

“When things get hard, we break into pieces a little bit,” Murphy said. “We have to stick to what we know and who we’ve been. We have to find our identity. We’re losing that a little bit.”

The Gators lost starting post player and leading rebounder Alex Condon just 30 seconds into the game when he sustained an ankle injury on a hard foul from RJ Melendez. The Bulldogs (17-7, 5-6 Southeastern Conference) took advantage of Condon’s absence and went to work inside, scoring 18 of their 34 first-half points in the paint and out-rebounding Florida 26-16 in the opening 20 minutes.

That helped MSU overcome a dismal start from 3-point range. The Bulldogs were 2-for-15 from behind the arc in the first half but used an 8-0 run to pull ahead on three Josh Hubbard free throws. A Shawn Jones layup on a 3-on-1 fast break gave the hosts the lead back, and Melendez blocked Walter Clayton Jr.’s layup just before the buzzer. Melendez had a career-high four blocks, including his years at Illinois and Georgia.

“We set the tone and had a good defensive first half. We rebounded the ball very well in the first half, and that was a big goal for us,” Jans said. “The locker room was pretty animated by players and coaches in a really positive way. We made a couple slight adjustments to what they were doing against us. For whatever reason, we just got off to a horrible start (in the second half).”

MSU’s best defender, Cameron Matthews, picked up his third foul barely a minute into the second half, and the Bulldogs were all out of sorts on both ends of the floor with their veteran leader on the bench. Florida (21-3, 8-3) led by three when Matthews subbed out of the game; when he came back in less than four minutes later, the Gators were up by 16.

In addition to MSU’s 10 second-half turnovers, the Bulldogs’ poor perimeter defense let them down again as Florida was 8-for-16 from deep over the final 20 minutes.

“(Matthews) is such a big part of our personality and our spirit on the court, but we’ve had to play plenty of stretches without him,” Jans said. “We just didn’t react very well to the start of the second half.”

Things were not much better offensively. Murphy had 18 points and 13 rebounds for his fourth double-double of the season, and Hubbard found his 3-point stroke in the second half and led MSU with 19 points. Outside of that duo, the rest of the Bulldogs were held in check. Even a 10-0 MSU run late in the game represented nothing more than window dressing.

The Bulldogs head back on the road Saturday for their second meeting with Ole Miss. MSU defeated the Rebels in overtime at Humphrey Coliseum on Jan. 18.

“As a unit, for that time segment (early in the second half), we just gave up,” Hubbard said. “It’s easy to play when you’re down. We were up one at halftime, and we should have come out like we were down. I just felt like we could have had a better mood about it.”