STARKVILLE — Missouri double-teamed Josh Hubbard on the first possession of Saturday’s game, trapping Mississippi State’s star guard and forcing him into a bad pass for a turnover. The Tigers promptly threw the ball out of bounds, but Missouri then doubled Cameron Matthews and forced him to dribble the ball off his knee.
The Bulldogs turned the ball over twice in the first 27 seconds, and that set the tone for what was to come. No. 14 MSU again struggled to defend the 3-point line as the No. 20 Tigers turned up the heat at the end of the first half and quickly pulled away for an 88-61 victory. The 27-point loss was easily the Bulldogs’ most lopsided home defeat in three years under head coach Chris Jans.
“It definitely was a dominating performance by Missouri,” Jans said. “We knew they were a really good basketball team before the ball was tipped. I told everybody that would listen to me that they’re the best team in the country, not just the SEC, that nobody is talking about. I know they’re ranked 20th, but they’ve just looked really good to me all year long, especially on tape in their recent games.”
The Tigers cashed in on Matthews’ turnover, opening the scoring with a Tony Perkins 3-pointer that helped them jump out to a quick 10-2 lead. Hubbard buried his first two 3-point attempts as MSU (16-6, 4-5 Southeastern Conference) used an 8-0 run to briefly pull ahead by one, but the hosts’ lead lasted less than a minute.
Missouri’s sharpshooting sixth man, Caleb Grill, drilled three 3-pointers in 90 seconds as the Tigers (17-4, 6-2) started 7-for-11 from deep. Grill connected again in the final minute of the first half from the outline of the state of Mississippi near half-court.
“It’s the third home loss we’ve had this year where that’s been the tale of the tape,” Jans said. “We’re going to have to really break it down as a staff and go backward a little bit to change some things, because (our perimeter defense) is not working. It’s not a one-off. It’s been consistent. There are a lot of teams in this league that are capable of shooting the basketball like that.”
The Bulldogs stayed close until the final television timeout of the first half, but went without a field goal for the last four and a half minutes heading into halftime. MSU missed its last five shots of the first half and seven of eight to start the second half. Missouri ended the opening 20 minutes with 10 straight points and never looked back.
A year after they had the SEC’s best 3-point defense, the Bulldogs are second to last in that category this season, and Saturday was their sixth time allowing at least 10 3-pointers in their last seven games.
Meanwhile, MSU’s 3-point box score resembled many games from last year. Hubbard led all scorers with 24 points and was 6-for-11 from behind the arc, while the rest of the team was a combined 2-for-15. KeShawn Murphy, who had 16 points and nine rebounds, was the Bulldogs’ only other consistent source of offense.
“We can’t let this game affect our next game,” Hubbard said. “Just going back to the drawing board, picking up some things that we did this game to learn from it, get in the film room and get some extra shots up. That’s just the main thing.”
MSU trimmed the deficit to 10 points early in the second half on three Hubbard free throws and a Murphy 3-point play, but the Tigers responded with a 15-0 run to turn the game into a laugher. Grill matched Hubbard by going 6-for-11 from long range, helping Missouri’s bench outscore that of the Bulldogs 46-20.
The Tigers also shot 55 percent from the floor, becoming the third MSU opponent to shoot at least that well through nine SEC games.
“We just got beat in every category. That’s just the bottom line,” Jans said. “We’ve had some tough nights, we’ve had some tough losses, we haven’t won every game we’ve played at home, but I don’t ever remember that feeling that I had this afternoon.”
The Bulldogs are under .500 at the halfway point of SEC play for the third straight year under Jans, and will once again need to turn things around in the back half of their conference schedule. MSU has a midweek bye coming up and is back in action next Saturday at Georgia.
“I was embarrassed for all of us. It starts with me. It’s my responsibility to have the pulse and get them ready to go, either via game-planning or just motored up and motivated. Obviously we weren’t,” Jans said. “I feel awful for our fan base, for the administration, for everybody that loves Bulldog basketball. It was an awful feeling, and I never want to have it again.”
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