Mississippi State Stops One Bad Trend, But the Losing Streak Lives On

Mississippi State lost its fourth straight game, falling 88-68 to Texas A&M as turnovers and cold shooting overshadowed signs of progress.

Mississippi State Bulldogs guard Shawn Jones Jr. (5) and Texas A&M Aggies guard Rylan Griffen (3) go for a rebound during the first half at Reed Arena. | Maria Lysaker-Imagn Images

Mississippi State men’s basketball team ended one of the two negative streaks it had built over the last few games.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t the losing streak.

The Bulldogs lost their fourth consecutive game Wednesday night against Texas A&M, 88-68. They did end their streak of losing a double-digit first half lead, though.

Overall, it wasn’t the worst game from the Bulldogs. They finished with a higher field goal percentage and more rebounds. Other areas weren’t as positive.

Mississippi State turned the ball over 13 times compared to the Aggies’ 4. The Bulldogs didn’t score any points off turnovers and the Aggies scored 14.

“Their style of play is very streaky that way, they're never out of games because of high possessions, because of the pressing, because of playing fast,” Mississippi State coach Chris Jans said in his postgame radio interview. “At the same time sometimes you can get back into games that way. But it just felt like we couldn't get to halftime quick enough and try to regroup. Definitely the game started slipping away from us there the last five or six minutes of the first half.”

It was also another uncharacteristically cold night of shooting beyond the three-point line for Mississippi State. The Bulldogs were 6-of-23 from beyond the arch and Josh Hubbard was just 2-of-8.

Hubbard fell well short of his scoring average for the season, scoring only 12 points while 5-of-14 from the field. Brandon Walker ended up leading the team in scoring with 16. King Grace was second with 13 points and Jayden Epps had 11.

“My promise to them is I'm not going to get discouraged by it,” Jans said. “I'm going to keep my nose to the grindstone and keep trying to tinker with this and that. I thought going into the game they had put in good work. I really felt their focus was good and practice was good after a really tough week at home."

“Unfortunately, it wasn't enough. I say this a lot, I get it: the bottom line is winning losing, I understand that more than anybody. But from my chair that's what I told them, the expectation would be the same for them on an individual basis and as a program.”

Mississippi State Top Performers

• Points: Brandon Walker, 16
• Rebounds: Achor Achor, 10
• Assists: King Grace/Dellquan Wright, 3
• Steals: Dellquan Warren, 1
• Blocks: Four with 1

Next Up

Mississippi State won’t have too much time to dwell on the loss. The Bulldogs will host No. 15 Vanderbilt on Saturday. Tipoff is set for 5 p.m. on SEC Network.