STARKVILLE — Mississippi State faced its first real adversity of the season Tuesday night sooner than Chris Jans was hoping his team would. But the Bulldogs settled down after a tough stretch to close the first half and pulled away for an 80-59 victory over Southeastern Louisiana.
“Certainly disappointed with the end of the half,” Jans said. “We just didn’t take advantage of our personnel, and we blew a possession and then I was mad and we didn’t defend and then they scored again. … We had the game where we wanted it there at the end of the first half, we just didn’t finish it very well. At halftime, we talked about reestablishing ourselves.”
MSU (3-0) recovered from a sloppy offensive start to open a double-digit lead at two different points in the first half before the Lions (1-2) closed the half on an 8-0 run, and a CJ Booker 3-pointer with 12 seconds left made it a one-possession game. Kam Burton, who finished 5-for-10 from 3-point range, helped Southeastern Louisiana hang around.
The Bulldogs tightened things up defensively in the second half, holding the Lions scoreless for more than five and a half minutes as they scored 12 straight points and opened up a 15-point lead. Penn State transfer Kanye Clary had five points in quick succession during that spurt, and Shawn Jones Jr. scored six points in 63 seconds to help MSU create more separation.
“I just had to bring energy,” Jones said. “We weren’t playing hard enough, and when I came out there, I just had to bring that nastiness, get the defense involved so we could all play together.”
Josh Hubbard led all scorers with 23 points, and he did so without taking a shot for more than eight minutes to start the game. He then heated up as so few other players can, with 14 points in the last 12 minutes of the first half. Hubbard was 4-for-8 from behind the arc, with the rest of the Bulldogs finishing a collective 3-for-20. He also led MSU with five assists.
One of those non-Hubbard 3-point makes came from Cameron Matthews, who made just two 3-pointers all of last year but connected from deep to start that 12-0 run early in the second half. Matthews added 13 rebounds, three steals and a block.
“They played great defense in the first half. Credit to them,” Hubbard said. “They applied pressure early on all of us, and so we adjusted to that. I just reacted to what the defense gave me, and we all did a good job with it.”
Clary chipped in with 12 points and KeShawn Murphy, who sat out for the last 14 minutes of the opening half with two quick fouls, still managed 10. Michael Nwoko played just 10 minutes, but still had six points and three boards, and RJ Melendez was a big part of the Bulldogs’ defensive effort. The Georgia transfer helped MSU hold Southeastern Louisiana to 22 points and under 30 percent shooting in the second half.
The Bulldogs will not play at Humphrey Coliseum again until Dec. 4 against Pittsburgh. They face their first high-major opponent of the year Sunday, battling Utah at the Landers Center in Southaven.
“Certainly we’re going to find out a lot more about our team in the next two weeks, having to play away from (Starkville) our next four games,” Jans said. “With the level of competition we’re about to play, we’re going to find out who we are.”
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