STARKVILLE — The bad times are back for the Mississippi State men’s basketball team.
Following a three-week stretch that saw MSU win four of six Southeastern Conference games, coach Rick Ray’s team suffered a 55-51 loss to Alabama on Tuesday night before an announced crowd of 6,386 at Humphrey Coliseum.
“This is one that hurts because we did some good things defensively, but we’ve got to win games like this on our home court,” said Ray, whose team fell to 11-13 and 4-7 in the SEC. “We continue to have stat lines that are really amazing. You hold a team to 32-percent shooting, outrebound them, get to free-throw line more, and yet you still end up with a loss. We can’t lose games like this.”
Despite a defensive effort that saw MSU limit Alabama to 17 of 52 shots from the field (5 for 27 from 3-point range), the Bulldogs couldn’t find enough offense to keep up with the Crimson Tide (14-9, 5-6). A 3-pointer by Travis Daniels with a little more than six minutes left cut Alabama’s lead to 42-41. But MSU missed its next seven shots from the field and Alabama used a 7-0 run to build a 49-41 lead.
After a recent stretch that saw MSU earn conference wins against Auburn, Tennessee, LSU, and Vanderbilt, it has averaged 46 points in its past two losses. Against Alabama, MSU scored 21 points in the first half due to 11 turnovers.
“Proud of our guys for the effort today,” Alabama coach Anthony Grant said. “I thought both halves defensively was the difference in the games. We faced a lot of adversity in the first half, but the fact we fought through that and held them to just 21 points really was a key to this win.”
MSU’s struggles on offense continued from a 61-41 loss to Arkansas on Saturday in Fayetteville, Arkansas. That total was a season low for the Bulldogs, who averaged 52 points in their five-game losing streak earlier this season. In the six games prior to the loss to Arkansas loss, MSU, which went 4-2 in that span, averaged 66 points per game.
“I think if we knew what the problem was offensively we wouldn’t be doing it,” MSU sophomore point guard I.J. Ready said. “We really didn’t get into a rhythm early. In the first half, we weren’t clicking, weren’t on the same page.”
That lack of cohesiveness factored into a stretch in which the Bulldogs committed six turnovers in seven trips. The mistakes led to easy baskets for Alabama, which built a 25-21 halftime lead.
“When we did get shots up, we missed way too many looks at the rim,” said MSU guard Craig Sword, who had four turnovers in the first half. “We couldn’t finish.”
Sword was one of two Bulldogs to reach double digits in scoring, as he and junior forward Gavin Ware shared the team lead with 13 points. But Ware, who had a game-high eight rebounds, was 3 of 13 from the field. MSU was 17 of 46 for the game (37 percent), and had five assists and 15 turnovers.
But while MSU struggled to score points, so did Alabama. The Crimson Tide were 7 of 24 from the field in the second half and scored seven points in the first 10 minutes of the half, which allowed MSU to take a 36-34 lead.
“That’s the frustrating part,” Ray said. “Defensively, we made every play we needed to make. We just couldn’t finish on the other end. I thought all of our turnovers came in the frontcourt. Once we got into our half-court offense, we were giving the ball away. You can’t win games in this league doing that.”
Trailing 52-44 with one minute left, the Bulldogs cut the lead in half, as Sword stole an inbounds pass and converted a layup and stole the ensuing inbounds pass and fed guard Fred Thomas for a layup to force a timeout. Alabama nearly turned the ball over on its next possession, as a pass from Riley Norris landed in Ready’s hands, but he couldn’t handle it, which led to free throws by Alabama’s Justin Coleman.
“I had it, but Fred or Craig or somebody came underneath me and the ball popped out. It was close,” Ready said.
Coleman and Rodney Cooper made 2 of 4 free throws down the stretch before Levi Randolph made 1 of 2 to account for the final margin.
Sophomore forward Shannon Hale was 5 of 9 from the field and paced Alabama with 14 points. Randolph, Alabama’s leading scorer at 14.6 ppg., had 13. He also had a team-high seven rebounds.
Ready said MSU’s performance in the past two games has evoked a familiar feeling.
“It hurts bad,” Ready said. “It is starting to feel like the last couple of years. We just have to get in the gym and figure it out.”
Despite the losses, Ray doesn’t feel his team has regressed.
“If we win that game tonight, everybody feels much better about themselves,” Ray said.
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brandon Walker on Twitter @BWonStateBeat
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 36 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.