TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Cameron Matthews stole the ball from Alabama guard Labaron Philon in the first minute of the second half Tuesday night and had an uninterrupted path to the basket. All he needed to do was calmly lay the ball off the backboard and through the net.
But Mississippi State’s fifth-year senior forward blew the layup, and although Claudell Harris Jr. was trailing the play and grabbed the ball as it came off the rim, his uncontested tip-in also did not go down. It was just that kind of night for the No. 24 Bulldogs against the No. 6 Crimson Tide.
Much more concerning, especially coming off the second half of Saturday’s loss at Oklahoma, was MSU’s inability to string together defensive stops. Alabama is the top offensive team in the country, but the Bulldogs were too often caught out of rotation and left the Crimson Tide’s shooters wide open on the perimeter. The result was 22 made 3-pointers for Alabama and an embarrassing 111-73 loss for MSU.
“We broke down. Our effort wasn’t there from the jump,” said RJ Melendez, who had three blocks in the first five minutes for some of the Bulldogs’ only defensive highlights. “They made a run, and we didn’t know how to respond.”
Chris Youngblood had scored a season-high 23 points in the Crimson Tide’s narrow win at Humphrey Coliseum on Jan. 29, and he outdid himself in the rematch, leading all scorers with 27 points on 7-for-11 from behind the arc. Alabama’s best player, Mark Sears, was effective scoring and distributing the ball with 21 points and 10 assists, and three more Tide players also cracked double figures.
The Bulldogs (19-9, 7-8 Southeastern Conference) completely lost track of Sears twice in the first half, leaving him with an entire side of the court to himself for open 3-point looks that he buried.
“They were very, very efficient, and it snowballed on us,” MSU head coach Chris Jans said. “It became contagious. At that point, all you can do is give them a tip of the cap because of how well they played, how well they competed, how well they shared the ball. For us, it’s finding a way to move on, regroup, get better.”
Less than five minutes after Alabama (23-5, 12-3) took the lead for good, the Crimson Tide led by double digits. The second of back-to-back 3-pointers by Youngblood gave the hosts a 20-point lead with six minutes left in the first half.
The Bulldogs also struggled on the offensive end with Alabama giving extra attention to Josh Hubbard, who scored 38 points in the teams’ first meeting in Starkville. Hubbard led MSU with 21 points Tuesday night, but 15 of those came in the second half with the game already a rout. KeShawn Murphy picked up a double-double with 18 points and 11 rebounds.
“Their system is a little bit more designed to turn you over, so if you don’t turn it over, you can get quality shots if you move it,” Alabama head coach Nate Oats said. “They’ve turned teams over. They played some zone in the second half, and zones tend to give up a lot of 3s.”
MSU has now allowed 170 points over its last three halves dating back to the Oklahoma game. The Bulldogs will be back home Saturday afternoon to face LSU.
“We felt like we were hitting our stride and maybe we had figured it out and were playing better than we were earlier,” Jans said. “The mood and the vibe was really good. I liked how we were playing, for the most part. And then we had the back-to-back road games, it started at Oklahoma where we just didn’t play as well, and certainly tonight we took a (negative) turn. This league will do that to you. You have to take care of the opportunities you get.”
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