Starkville – Upsets have been one of the biggest themes of this college basketball season, and one of the worst ones of the season came at Humphrey Coliseum on Sunday afternoon as #21 Mississippi State fell to Southern 60-59.
The Jaguars, who entered the contest with a 1-6 record while allowing over 80 points five times, held the Bulldogs scoreless in the final four minutes and 28 seconds of the ballgame to cap off a 12-0 run for the win.
“I felt like we were really stagnant and we were real tentative, on our heels,” forward Cameron Matthews said. “It looked like we didn’t know what we were doing.”
The Bulldogs were in dire need of a dynamic offensive outburst after their 67-59 loss at Georgia Tech, and after Dashawn Davis hit nothing by nylon from deep on the opening possession, it seemed like that’s what they would be getting.
Davis’ three was fool's gold, however, as Mississippi State struggled offensively throughout the first half shooting just 38.5% from the field with nine turnovers. The sloppy offense kept Southern in it for a 31-28 halftime score, as Jaguar guard Tai’Reon Joseph seemingly couldn’t miss, scoring 18 of his 27 points before the break.
“Shout out to him, he’s a hooper,” Matthews said. “He was just kind of putting his head down and getting to the cup and making tough finishes, so shoutout to him.”
Graduate guard Andrew Taylor sparked the Bulldogs to the halftime lead with two three-pointers. The Marshall transfer, who averaged 20.2 points last season and did not see meaningful action in the Bulldogs’ last four games, led the team with a +12 +/- after seemingly taking Trey Fort’s minutes, who did not play Sunday due to a coach's decision.
Mississippi State built up a lead in the second half behind some hot shooting by Josh Hubbard. The freshman drained two threes and scored nine of his 14 points in the second half. Cameron Matthews added 12 while Davis scored nine, but the final stretch of the game was one the Bulldogs would like to forget.
The Bulldogs held a 59-48 lead at the 4:29 mark but missed their final six field goal attempts while finishing the game with 17 turnovers. The Southern defense gave Mississippi State some different looks by pressing them and playing a zone, which the Bulldog offense had no answer for.
“I think it was our zone,” Southern head coach Kevin Johnson said. “We don’t have size to match up with those guys. We’ve played zone this year and we had to with the schedule we’ve played. But I had no idea we would play that much zone tonight but I am proud of them.”
The Jaguars chipped away with an and-one by Brandon Davis and a three by Jordan Johnson. A D.J. Jeffries turnover allowed Joseph to score a transition bucket with one minute remaining to cut the lead to 59-58 and Davis split the defense for the go-ahead with 24 seconds on the clock. On the Bulldogs’ final possession they put it into the hands of their leading scorer Hubbard, but his floater attempt was rejected by Joseph to seal the win for Southern.
The #21 Bulldogs have now dropped two consecutive games and are certain to fall out of the ranking in these week’s AP Poll. Chris Jans’ club is no stranger to adversity, having made the NCAA Tournament after a 1-7 start to SEC play last season, but unlike a cold streak against conference foes, a loss to a SWAC team like Southern is certain to be a blemish on the Bulldogs’ résumé come selection Sunday.
“Since we arrived, being 1-7 in the SEC was probably the biggest adversity that we have faced thus far,” Jans said. “In my opinion, it’s going to pale in comparison to what we’re going to go through moving forward. This is going to stay with us all year long. There’s no way around it. We’re going to have to figure out how we move forward as a group. It’s going to be hard. It’s going to be tough.”
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