The good, bad and ugly for Mississippi State in loss to Ole Miss

Mississippi State blows another first-half lead and pays the price in an ugly, one-point rivalry loss to Ole Miss.

Mississippi State Bulldogs guard Jayden Epps (10) reacts as he grabs his ankle during the second half against the Alabama Crimson Tide at Humphrey Coliseum. | Petre Thomas-Imagn Images

Saturday night’s game inside Humphrey Coliseum wasn’t pretty.

It was an ugly game with Mississippi State and Ole Miss constantly missing field goals, layups and free throws. The two teams combined to shoot 38.9 percent from the field.

In today’s college basketball, that’s bad. But the Rebels were the ones to make more baskets (five to be exact) and emerge victorious, 68-67.

“At the end of the day, all that matters is who won and who lost,” Mississippi State coach Chris Jans said after the game.

That’s true to an extent, but how the Bulldogs lost matters. Here’s the good, bad and ugly from Saturday night’s loss.

The Good

Jamarion Davis-Fleming.

The true freshman had easily his best collegiate game. He was second in scoring with 13 points, but was 6-of-8 from the field. He also grabbed eight rebounds and blocked four shots.

"I thought Jamar was really, really good. He was dynamic, he was quick twitched and all over the court,” Jans said. “He stuffed the stat sheet with blocked shots and offensive rebounds and moving around on defense. I can't imagine it's not his best game to-date. With his development and future hopefully that's something we'll be talking about later."

On a night when nearly every other Bulldog was ice cold on the court, Davis-Fleming was hot. His performance was a big reason this game didn’t get out of hand like previous games against Kentucky and Alabama.

The Bad

Another double-digit first half lead blown.

Davis-Fleming threw down a slam dunk at the 9:24-mark of the first half that put Mississippi State ahead by 11 points.

It was the third consecutive game the Bulldogs jumped out to an early double-digit lead. But just like the games against Kentucky and Alabama, they couldn’t sustain the lead.

Mississippi State ended the first half on a 2:35 scoring drought and was missed its last six field goals of the half. The Bulldogs never lost the lead until the second half and then lead changed 13 times.

It’s going to be a long season if this the Bulldogs can’t figure out a way to break this trend.

The Ugly

Josh Hubbard and Jayden Epps shooting.

Even the best players have bad nights. Mississippi State just happened to have its two leading scorers go ice cold at the same time.

Hubbard was averaging 22 points per game, but ended with just 13 against Ole Miss and was 3-for-16 from the field. He also only made two of his eight three-point attempts and 5-for-10 on free throws.

If Hubbard was 7-for-10 on free throws, we’d be talking about a Mississippi State win. He missed two free throws with 12 seconds left in the game and down by one point. He also missed a layup in the game’s final seconds and didn’t draw a foul.

Epps led the Bulldogs in scoring with 14 points despite shooting 4-of-18 from the field and 1-of-12 on three-pointers.

In a one-point loss, there’s countless moments that can be pointed to as a missed chance to win the game. But Epps and Hubbard’s performances loom very large on that list.