Tuscaloosa, AL- In what was likely a must win game for Mississippi State’s tournament hopes, the Bulldogs came up short falling to Alabama 80-75.

The first half was very competitive, as D.J. Jeffries led the way scoring 12 for the Bulldogs as they saw themselves down 34-30 going into the break. State would come out hot to start the 2nd half, hitting 5 three’s in the first 5 minutes, 3 of them from freshman Camryn Carter who made his first career start.

State found themselves with a 64-57 point lead with 7:43 to play, but Alabama Head Coach Nate Oats would get ejected after two technical fouls, and that seemed to be the turning point of the game, as it drew the crowd right back in and energized the Alabama team. The Tide would outscore Mississippi State 16-2 between the 7:15 and 0:58 marks of the 2nd half, and at that point the game was over. Mississippi State would go on a stretch missing 11 consecutive shots during this time.

Iverson Molinar led State with 22 points, however, 7 of those came in the final minute when Alabama had already wrapped up a victory. The freshman Camryn Carter was impressive scoring 15 points including shooting 3-6 from 3, and despite the loss, Carter was a bright spot and looks to be the starter at the 2nd guard spot moving forward.

Despite Jeffries’ big first half, he was pretty much a non-factor in the 2nd half, scoring just 3 points. Garrison Brooks had 8 points and 4 blocks, but State did not get much of a contribution from anyone else as Tolu Smith scored just 4 points and 3 rebounds, and only got 11 points from bench players.

Jahvon Quinerly was impressive leading the way for Alabama scoring 21 points on 8-16 shooting and dishing out 8 assists, while freshman Charles Bediako had a huge impact scoring 15 points and blocking 6 shots. Jaden Shackleford and Darius Miles each had 9 while J.D. Davison had 7 with 10 rebounds.

While Mississippi State improved in two aspects that have plagued them recently, shooting 17-19 from the free throw line and committing just nine turnovers, they had a rough night shooting the basketball hitting only 36.1% of their field goal attempts and 28.6% of their 3-pointers. Alabama’s fast pace of play may have been too much for the Bulldogs.

The loss to Alabama closes out a 3 game stretch of quadrant 1 opportunities, all 3 of which State had ample opportunity to win, but ultimately couldn’t pull out a victory. At this point, the Bulldogs are not even on the bubble anymore according to ESPN’s Joe Lunardi’s latest Bracketology, and will likely need a strong finish and a strong SEC tournament to get back in contention for a tournament berth.