Chris Jans credits Ole Miss for holding off Mississippi State comeback

Ole Miss held on to knock off rival Mississippi State 86-82 on Tuesday night in front of a packed house at the Pavilion, leaving Chris Jans searching for answers for his team.

The Bulldogs coach came away thoroughly impressed with the Rebels.

“Well first of all they’re obviously a good basketball team,” Jans said after the game. “They’re winning a lot of games for a reason. I’ve got a ton of respect for coach (Chris) Beard‘s coaching ability, his staff. They’ve come in here and changed the profile of this basketball program and they deserve a lot of credit. It was a big game for both of us, for a lot of different reasons.”

Ole Miss trailed in the contest for a good chunk of the first half, though the margin was never all that large. But the Rebels fought back to tie it at the break thanks to strong backcourt play.

That backcourt play would really start to assert itself in the second half, where guards Jaylen Murray and Matthew Murrell simply took over to give the Rebels the lead. Even after opening it up to double-digits, though, Ole Miss found itself battling a tough Mississippi State team.

The game pulled close until the end, when Ole Miss finally simply outlasted its opponent.

“I thought they played really well and their kids played well and it was a first-class game all the way,” Jans said. “We just couldn’t get over the hump. Certainly there’s a lot of plays back and forth that we’ll go over on the bus ride home and see where it went wrong, but if I wasn’t involved in it it would be an awesome college basketball game to view or be a part of in some other capacity. But it’s going to be a long bus ride home.”

The Bulldogs tried to make a game of it at every turn and some timely shooting by guard Josh Hubbard nearly made it possible. Hubbard helped the Bulldogs get back into things, scoring a team-high 21 points in the contest.

Forward Cameron Matthews scored 16, while guards DaShawn Davis and Shakeel Moore scored 15 and 14, respectively.

The loss dropped Mississippi State to 14-7 overall and 3-5 in SEC play.

The Bulldogs will be back in action on Saturday against Alabama in a game that tips off at 8:30 p.m. ET from Tuscaloosa, with a broadcast on the SEC Network.