Ole Miss hands MSU another deflating loss
STARKVILLE, Miss. – It happened again. Mississippi State's biggest rival continues to be a gigantic thorn in its side on the hardwood.
MSU fell to instate foe Ole Miss 64-46 at the Humphrey Coliseum on Tuesday night. The Rebels have now defeated the Bulldogs in 11 of the last 15 meetings overall and, as has so often been the case in recent years, this loss was a deflating one for State.
"They really just came out and played harder than us," MSU guard D.J. Stewart said. "Our energy wasn't there from the start."
The Bulldogs (9-6, 4-3) entered Tuesday's game with momentum. MSU had won four of its first six Southeastern Conference affairs and had just topped Florida this past Saturday. MSU had arguably been outperforming almost all expectations in a season in which the Bulldogs are trying to overcome losing their four top scorers from a year ago.
It appeared Ole Miss (7-6, 2-4) was ripe for the picking. The Rebels had lost three in a row coming in. But the Bulldogs couldn't get its offense going at all against primarily an Ole Miss zone defense.
"I thought our attack of the 2-3 zone was really subpar," State head coach Ben Howland said. "We've got to do better against the 2-3. Basically what we saw was just pressure, denial of everything, fight through every screen, really be in your face man to man. Then they played that 2-3 zone quite a bit and we did not attack it well. I thought the defense they played on us really bothered us."
MSU's 46-point showing was its second-lowest scoring output of the year. Only against Clemson in the season opener did the Bulldogs score fewer points.
State could find no offensive rhythm at all against the Rebels. The Bulldogs shot just 35 percent as a team, making only 18 of 52 shots.
MSU trailed for much of the night. The Bulldogs were down 29-21 at halftime and after getting to within four of the Rebels at times early in the second half, Ole Miss eventually pulled away.
The Rebels were led by a 22-point effort from guard Devontae Shuler. Stewart paced MSU with 18 points. Tolu Smith scored 10 for State but no other Bulldog reached double figures.
It was an all-around frustrating night for the maroon and white. The Bulldogs were outshot. They were out-rebounded. They turned the ball over two times more than the Rebels. They were beaten across the board. And adding to the frustration was the fact it was Ole Miss of all teams getting such an upper hand yet again.
"It's our rival game," Howland said. "At the end of the day, it's something we need to rectify and we need to do better."
MSU doesn't have an easy task in front of it as the Bulldogs look to ease the sting of Tuesday's loss. State returns to the court on Saturday night with a 5 p.m. game at No. 18 Alabama.
"Just got to have short-term memory loss," Stewart said. "We can't keep our heads down on this (Ole Miss) game."
POSTGAME PRESS CONFERENCES
MSU guard D.J. Stewart
MSU head coach Ben Howland
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