Mississippi State could have basically wrapped up an NCAA tournament bid on Saturday night in Nashville, Tennessee.
Instead, the Bulldogs will have to sweat it out for another week.
MSU (20-11, 8-10 Southeastern Conference) concluded its regular season with a 77-72 loss at Vanderbilt (18-12, 11-7 SEC) at Memorial Gymnasium.
Mississippi State trailed throughout but had a chance to win in the final seconds in Nashville.
“It wasn’t a lack of effort by the Bulldogs,” coach Chris Jans said on MSU’s postgame radio show. “I’m very disappointed. I’m hurt. It stings. But I’m also impressed with our guys, proud of our guys. Anyone that watched that game that has a clue about competition knows that the kids in the room played their tails off.”
Mississippi State will return to Nashville as the No. 9 seed in next week’s SEC tournament, a position the Bulldogs clinched earlier Saturday with Florida’s win over LSU.
MSU will play its first game against the Gators at noon Thursday at Bridgestone Arena.
Thanks to Saturday’s result, it will be a critical game for the Bulldogs if they want to make the Big Dance for the first time since 2019.
MSU fell to Vanderbilt under a barrage of 3-pointers, with the Commodores going 12 of 25 (48 percent) from beyond the arc. MSU, by contrast, shot less than half that percentage at 4 of 17.
Jans pointed to the 24-point differential between the two schools on triples alone.
“We made four 3s and they made 12, and that’s hard to overcome,” he said.
Mississippi State never did overcome Vanderbilt. The Bulldogs never held the lead Saturday night; they were tied for all of 51 seconds at three points apiece in the opening minutes.
The Bulldogs trailed by as many as 15 points early in the second half, but they cut the Commodores’ lead to two with 11:41 left. Vanderbilt responded, though, to pull ahead by 11 on a pair of triples by Myles Stute with 5:58 to play.
MSU again cut the lead to two in the closing seconds and had an opportunity down three points with seven seconds left, but Shakeel Moore badly missed a 3-pointer off the backboard after a home-run pass down the court.
“I think that was our best shot to actually get him a look, and we did, and unfortunately, I think he rushed it a little bit,” Jans said.
Tolu Smith led Mississippi State with 27 points on 9-of-17 shooting. D.J. Jeffries added 17 points, and Moore had 13 — all in the second half.
He and the Bulldogs were cold in the first half, as MSU went 3 for 7 at the free throw line as a team, allowed seven made 3-pointers, committed 11 turnovers and trailed by as many as 12 points — 10 at the break.
Jans said MSU struggled to find a rhythm early on.
“We just didn’t play well offensively in the first half — or defensively, for the most part,” he said. “It was very odd. It was almost like they were too hype, they were rushing things a little bit.”
That changed in the second half as Smith went on a personal 9-0 run and Moore scored MSU’s next nine points. Moore tossed an alley-oop to freshman Shawn Jones Jr. to make it a 49-47 game.
But Vanderbilt scored 15 of the game’s next 21 points for some crucial breathing room. The Bulldogs chipped away late at the Commodores’ lead, but it wasn’t enough.
“We were playing from behind the whole second half,” Jans said. “We were playing from behind the majority of the game, obviously, but it was just too much to overcome in the end.”
For Vanderbilt, Jordan Wright led with 19 points. Tyrin Lawrence scored 16, Ezra Manjon had 15, and Stute had 12.
The Commodores earned the No. 6 seed in the conference tournament, while MSU will play in the 8/9 game to kick off Thursday’s action.
The Bulldogs will be looking for revenge against a Florida team that beat them 61-59 on Jan. 21 at Humphrey Coliseum.
Jans said he expects Mississippi State to rebound from Saturday night’s tough road defeat in time for the crucial game.
“Certainly we’re all disappointed, but we’re going to regroup and we’re going to be ready on Thursday to play,” he said.
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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