Iverson Molinar readied himself to grab the basketball as it bounced high off the court.

Tipped by LSU’s Shareef O’Neal, the ball was headed right for the Mississippi State junior guard with just over 5 minutes left in Saturday night’s game in Baton Rouge. The Bulldogs trailed 56-50, but that felt like nothing after MSU erased a 15-point deficit earlier in the night.

But LSU’s Tari Eason got around MSU forward Garrison Brooks, grabbed the ball before Molinar could secure it and raced to the basket to throw down a two-handed dunk. LSU went back up by eight points.

Moments like that cost Mississippi State (14-10, 5-6 Southeastern Conference) dearly in Saturday’s 69-65 loss to LSU (18-7, 6-6 SEC). The Bulldogs lost for the fifth time in six games as their NCAA tournament hopes have continued to fade.

“We had great spurts, but we’ve got to do that for the whole game,” MSU forward Tolu Smith said.

MSU has been close in game after game — against Kentucky, Arkansas, Tennessee and now

Saturday night. But the Bulldogs have failed to put a full 40 minutes together, and Smith knows it falls on them to change that.

“We’re right there,” he said. “Right there. It’s nobody else but us.”

The Bulldogs battled but allowed LSU to come out on top Saturday in what proved a rather wild game at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. Mississippi State led 7-0, scored just four of the next 24 points, trailed by 15 at two separate moments and erased the deficit about midway through the second half. The Bulldogs even took the lead on a Shakeel Moore 3-pointer with 9:18 to play.

But as in almost every game over the past three weeks, MSU failed to close the deal.

LSU went on a 14-2 run immediately following Moore’s triple, pushing the score from 48-45 in the Bulldogs’ favor to 59-50 for the Tigers. Mississippi State hung around, never falling behind by double digits, but could never get within four points. Even that only came with 24 seconds left as MSU fought to extend the game.

The Bulldogs shot just 39.6 percent from the field and 17.6 percent from 3 against LSU, the country’s top defensive team per KenPom.com.

At the free throw line, MSU shot a respectable 20 for 28, but that included some key misses. Mississippi State coach Howland pointed out that Iverson Molinar went 10-10 at the line and the rest of the team was just 10-18.

Twice, Smith came up empty on a trip to the line, including with 10:47 to go in a tie game.

He also missed one of two free throws after a late make was waved off for basket interference with the Bulldogs trailing by seven points.
Andersson García also missed a pair of free throws with MSU trailing 49-48 and 7:38 to go.

“You just can’t make those kinds of mistakes in a road game,” Howland said.

But Mississippi State did, and the foul shooting woes weren’t the Bulldogs’ only troubles. MSU turned the ball over 18 times, including 11 turnovers in the first half alone.

“We’ve just got to do a better job valuing possessions,” Howland said. “They scored 20 points off of our turnovers, and that’s really the biggest difference in the game.”

But the Bulldogs cleaned up their act at the start of the second half after going into the break trailing 37-22.

MSU chipped away at the LSU lead, cutting it to six points with 14:24 to go and then snapping off an 8-0 run to tie things. Molinar, who finished with a team-high 26 points, hit a 3 with 11:41 to go to equalize at 43-all.

But LSU took the lead for good off two free throws by point guard Xavier Pinson with 8:07 left. Eason followed with a 3-pointer, one of three he made in a 23-point night.

Eason put the capper on the game with a windmill dunk as the Tigers broke an MSU press, putting LSU back up seven with 49 seconds left. The Bulldogs fouled intentionally to stretch out the game but never got within one possession.

Instead, they sunk their road record to 0-6 on the season and left themselves once again staring at an NCAA tournament bubble getting smaller by the second.

MSU has seven games left and just three remaining opportunities for a key Quadrant 1 win, beginning at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Alabama. That contest will kick off a stretch of four games in eight days as the Bulldogs fight to stay afloat.

“This is such a great league and so competitive,” Howland said. “Every game is going to be a dogfight and tough, and we’ve got to find a way to break through this slump.”

Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.