Takeaways from Mississippi State's SEC Tournament Second Round Victory Over LSU
The Mississippi State men's basketball team took down LSU 70-60 in the second round of the SEC Tournament on Thursday afternoon. The Bulldogs' chances of dancing on Selection Sunday certainly increased in this must-win game as they advanced to the quarterfinal against Tennessee.
This matchup had many factors that influenced the outcome in Nashville, Tenn. Here are three takeaways:
LSU Had a Clear Objective in the First Half
On Monday, the SEC released the annual men's basketball awards. Mississippi State guard Josh Hubbard (Second Team, All-Freshman), forward Cameron Matthews (All-Defensive) and big man Tolu Smith III (First Team) represented the Bulldogs as conference standouts while the Tigers didn't have a single player listed.
It seemed as though the Tigers took this personally in the first half as they had a clear objective to deny and put pressure on Hubbard, Matthews and Smith every time they touched the ball.
Mississippi State found itself down 29-22 at the break with Hubbard scoring all 10 of the trio's combined points. However, seven of those points were from the charity stripe as Hubbard started the game 1-of-6 from the field, including 1-of-5 from downtown. Smith and Matthews went a combined 0-4 shooting and the latter missed all four of his free throw attempts.
The rest of the Bulldogs couldn't make up for the trio's rough start to a must-win game, as Mississippi State went to the locker room shooting 7-of-24 from the field, including 1-of-10 from behind the arc. A lot of these misses occurred in the second portion of the first half, as Mississippi State failed to convert a field goal attempt in the final 7:42.
Mississippi State's First Half Defense Prevented Big Deficit
Despite shooting so poorly, Mississippi State was only down by seven at halftime. This was due to their very solid defense at every level of the floor as the Bulldogs forced 12 turnovers compared to their own seven. Mississippi State out-stole LSU in the opening period 6-5 as guard Dashawn Davis swiped three alone.
Neither team was notably effective when forcing turnovers as they each recorded one fast break basket and combined for 15 points off turnovers in the first half. But in the second half, one side really started to turn consistently stout defense into a productive scoring offense.
Mississippi State's Second Half Boost
It seemed like Mississippi State came out of the halftime locker room with a new burst of energy and that was certainly apparent on the court to open up the final 20 minutes.
The scoring started to come in bunches as the Bulldogs quickly scored 20 points before LSU frantically called a timeout with 11 minutes remaining. The aforementioned trio were contributors to the production but Davis, guard Shakeel Moore and forward D.J. Jeffries were also efficiently putting the ball in the basket. The Tigers called the timeout because they had only scored seven points on 3-of-12 shooting by then and Mississippi State found itself up 42-36.
LSU guard Trae Hannibal, who finished the game with a team-high 18 points, scored the Tigers' 36th point by a layup with 12:27 remaining but the rest of the team couldn't convert a field goal attempt until he himself broke the drought with 6:40 remaining.
After a couple of quick buckets, LSU was able to cut it down to a 53-52 deficit, but the Bulldogs turned it on again and never looked back. Hubbard finished the game with a team-high 24 points on 6-of-16 (5-of-10 in the second half) from the field and Davis was Mississippi State's other double-digit scorer as he tallied 12 points on 4-of-7 shooting.
Smith had eight points in the second half and Matthews had three, but both of their efforts on the other side of the floor were key to Mississippi State winning the second half by a score of 48-31. Additionally, Smith and Jeffries' board presence also played a major role in the second-half dominance as they finished the afternoon with a combined 24 rebounds. Lastly, Moore and Davis' consistent shooting (both went 4-of-7) helped boost the Bulldogs' field goal percentage to a respectable 41.8, which includes the 29.2 percent damages from the first half.
