The Mississippi State Bulldogs beat the Missouri Tigers 75-51 in Mizzou Arena on Saturday night. 51 points is the lowest the Tigers have scored in a game all season. The Tigers were not able to find the bottom of the basket often. The team had a 34% field goal percentage and shot a 16% from the three-point line.
The Bulldogs earned their first road SEC win of the season, boosting their conference record to 5-6. Mississippi ended the game with three double-digit scorers. Guard Josh Hubbard led the Bulldogs in scoring with 16 points. Guard Shakeel Moore shot perfect from three, going 4-of-4. Moore ended the night with 14 points. Forward Tolu Smith finished the night with a double-double. Smith had 13 points and 11 rebounds.
The Tigers came into Saturday night’s game winless in conference, but Dennis Gate’s squad still has not given up on the season. Gates stated “Every day our guys fight.” Though the Tigers never led for more than three minutes in the game, the game didn’t seem out of reach for most of the first half. The Tigers ended halftime being down 30-26. Then the game took a Mississippi State turn in the second half. Gates wished “[the team] could’ve put those two halves together.”
All of the momentum stayed on the Bulldogs’ side after a quick 3-pointer by Shakeel Moore to start the half. In this period of basketball, the Bulldogs dominated in all facets of the game. The Bulldogs forced 10 turnovers, held the Tigers to a 30.4% field goal percentage and took a 10-0 run midway through the second half.
Overall, the Bulldogs forced 20 turnovers during the game. Of those 20 turnovers, 15 were steals. Forward Cameron Matthews was a major factor in their production of steals, ending the game with seven. Gates believed that “it was a miracle” that his team’s 20 turnovers only led to 14 points for the Bulldogs.
Missouri played without their leading scorer Sean East II. The Tigers missed East greatly during this game as the struggles on offense continued. Outside of East and guard Tamar Bates, Missouri has not had a proven and consistent scorer. Bates ended the game with 10 points, 4.2 below his game average. This was not an efficient 10 points as Bates shot 3-of-11 and 0-of-4 from three. On paper, if neither player has an efficient and high scoring game, the chances of Missouri winning are near zero. Gates said Bates is “entitled to an off night” due to the consistency he has had all season.
Mizzou guard Nick Honor led the Tigers in scoring with 15 points with Bates being the only other player having a double digit scoring night. Honor had 37 minutes played due to the absence of East. Gates knew before the game that “we needed Nick [Honor] and Tamar [Bates] to have certain stats” in order to win the game.
The Tigers next game will be at Ole Miss on Saturday, February 17.