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No. 16 Iowa State crushes Mississippi State, 96-80

Paul Jones Mississippi State Bulldogsby: Paul Jones15 hours agoPaulJonesOn3
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Mississippi State basketball team (Photo by Mississippi State Athletics)

Mississippi State faced its first major challenge of the young season on Monday against No. 16 Iowa State and fell in a rough way, losing 96-80. in Sioux Falls, S.D. The Bulldogs had 26 turnovers and were outscored 29-7 in points off turnovers. Those turnover totals tied for the most-ever in the Chris Jans era.

Josh Hubbard led the Bulldogs (1-1) with 25 points and was 8 of 17 from the field, including 4 of 10 from 3 point territory. Shawn Jones added 11 points and Brandon Walker had 10 points off the bench. Achor Achor also had nine points and eight rebounds in 19 minutes of action.

Tamin Lipsey led Iowa State (3-0) with 25 points while Joshua Jefferson had 18. Blake Buchanan and Dominick Nelson also finished in double digits for the Cyclones with 13 and 11 points, respectively.

“They’re as good as advertised,” Jans said afterwards. “When we scheduled this game I knew it would be quite the challenge. I know their program and watched them play a lot. They are a really good basketball team and they dictate and that’s their deal. They are going to be aggressive at the point of the attack with the ball. They just old-fashioned take the ball from you and they are built on that.”

Overall, Mississippi State shot an even 50% from the field and made 11 of 27 behind the 3 point arc. The Bulldogs made 11 of 14 at the foul line and held a 37-31 rebounding advantage, including 15 offensive boards.

Iowa State shot 51.4% from the field and made 5 of 22 from 3 point range. The Cyclones made 19 of 25 at the charity stripe and had nine turnovers.

In the early going, State jumped out to a 10-6 advantage following Hubbard’s first 3 pointer of the night. The Bulldogs would hold a 16-15 lead moments later but that was be the last lead of the night for State. Iowa State got a Dominykas Pleta tip-in with 8:32 left in the half to cap a 7-0 Cyclones’ run, and it only got worse for State the remainder of the half.

Iowa State would close out the final seven minutes on a dominating 24-8 run and held a commanding 53-35 halftime advantage.

In the first half, State shot 40.7% from the field and made 5 of 14 beyond the 3 point arc. The Bulldogs were 8 of 8 at the foul line and out-rebounded the Cyclones 19-15 in the first half. But the Bulldogs had 15 turnovers in the opening half and were outscored 18-4 in points off turnovers.

Iowa State shot 52.8% from the floor in the first half and made 4 of 12 from 3 point territory. The Cyclones were 11 of 13 at the charity stripe and had only four turnovers in the half.

“I just told the team we’ve got a long, long season ahead of us at this point,” added Jans. “We can’t do anything about the results of this particular game. There’s a pretty rejected group of young people in the locker room, including the coaches. At this point, we got a lot of learning to do and that is the only thing we can do. Learn and really grow otherwise, it was all for naught.

“There’s no do-overs. It was just a very disappointing result for all of us. It was 31-27 with four minutes left and all of the sudden the field changed quickly. But obviously 26 turnovers, it was up and down the roster. It really added up and we didn’t handle their pressure very well.”

The Bulldogs trailed by as many as 25 points in the second half and never got any closer than 16 points the rest of the half.

Up Next

Mississippi State returns to action on Saturday as the Bulldogs play host to Southeastern Louisiana in a 2 p.m. tipoff at Humphrey Coliseum. Southeastern Louisiana is 0-3 on the season with losses to Ole Miss, Louisiana and Georgia Tech.

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