Four Takeaways from Mississippi State's Loss to No. 8 Kentucky
The Mississippi State men's basketball team fell to No. 8 Kentucky 90-77 on Wednesday evening.
Besides the historic upset victory over former No. 5 Tennessee, the Bulldogs have struggled in SEC play as their loss against Kentucky makes them 1-3 in the conference and 12-5 overall.
This matchup had many factors that influenced Wednesday's outcome in Lexington, Ky. Here are four takeaways:
First Half Shooting Woes
Mississippi State quickly stormed back from an early 15-5 rough start to make it an 18-14 deficit, but that would be the closest the Bulldogs would come to the Wildcats in the first half.
Kentucky ended the first 20 minutes with a commanding 47-29 lead. Typically a margin of this magnitude would be the result of turnovers, but Mississippi State committed eight compared to Kentucky's four. The Wildcats scored 10 points compared to the Bulldogs' two, but that wasn't the main cause for the halftime score.
Mississippi State finished the first half shooting just 11-of-31 from the field (35.5 percent). They shot the same 5-of-14 from deep as Kentucky did, but they struggled from inside the arc and even close to the basket. They had several misses on tip-ins and second-chance opportunities after recording six offensive rebounds.
Defensive Issues
Mississippi State entered Wednesday averaging 64.8 points allowed per game--the 36th least amount in all of Division I.
They allowed a season-high 82 points in the loss to Alabama on Jan. 13, but Kentucky broke that by scoring 90. Wildcats guard Antonio Reeves scored a team-high 27 points, but fellow guard Rob Dillingham and forwards Tre Mitchell and Aaron Bradshaw also finished with double figures.
Kentucky ended the first half shooting 56 percent from the field and finished the game with that same percentage. They only scored on 7-of-23 attempts from downtown, but Mississippi State couldn't stop them on the inside and midrange areas.
Additionally, the Bulldogs struggled to defend without fouling when the Wildcats drove inside, as Kentucky tallied a whopping 27 free throw attempts and converted on 23 of them.
The High-Scoring Second Half
As previously stated, Mississippi State's defense struggled throughout the game, but that wasn't the case to open up the second half as they committed three turnovers immediately.
Bulldogs All-SEC forward Tolu Smith III only recorded four points in the first half, but his quick transitions off of Mississippi State's early second-half steals helped him log 12 points by the 17:16 mark. Two threes by guard Dashawn Davis and forward D.J. Jeffries closed the gap to six before Kentucky head coach John Calipari signaled a timeout.
Kentucky proceeded to go on a big run themselves and were quickly back up to a comfortable double-digit lead. But from then on, the two teams were in a back-and-forth affair as neither squad could stop the other.
The Bulldogs went from shooting 35.5 percent from the field in the first half to closing the game shooting just under 45 percent. Like the opening minutes of the second half, Smith was pivotal to the increased percentage as he finished the match with 26 points on 11-of-15 from the field. Mississippi State guard Trey Fort was the Bulldogs' only other player to score 10-plus points, logging 13 on 5-of-10 from the field, including 3-of-7 from downtown.
Josh Hubbard Struggles From Deep
Mississippi State guard Josh Hubbard has been perhaps the Bulldogs' brightest star this season as he's second on the team in points per game (15.1). However, Kentucky seemed to have his number on Wednesday night as he scored just three points and only made one of his nine attempts from deep (0-for-2 inside the arc).
This was only the freshman's third game of the season where he failed to put up double-digit points. This is especially strange because Hubbard was named the SEC Freshman of the Week for the second time just this past Sunday. Hopefully, this was just a fluke for the 19-year-old and he'll be back to himself starting Saturday against Vanderbilt.
