Career-high 17 points from Shawn Jones leads State past Southeastern Louisiana, 75-68

It got a little interesting late but Mississippi State (2-1) managed to get back in the winning column on Saturday. The Bulldogs held off a late surge by Southeastern Louisiana (0-4) and captured a 75-68 victory at Humphrey Coliseum.

Shawn Jones paced the Bulldogs with a career-high 17 points while Josh Hubbard and Jayden Epps had 15 and 10 points, respectively. Ja’Borri McGhee and King Grace each added eight points for the Bulldogs.

“I thought up until it was 57-40, 68-54, that we had handled their pressing and trapping that we knew they were going to do,” head coach Chris Jans said afterwards. “We had gotten more out of it than they did up until that point. But they just kept playing. Credit to them and they kept scrapping.

“All of a sudden they get back-to-back turnovers and the lead shrinks. Coaches are upset, players a little dejected. Unfortunately, I’ve had to talk a lot about this but these lessons we are learning will have to be applied. I just talked to the team about that. Learning lessons but we’ve got to apply them to the games.”

Jeremy Elyzee had a game-high 19 points for the Lions while Jalen Forrest also finished in double digits for Southeastern Louisiana with 16.

Jones was 7 of 10 from the floor, including a career-best 3 of 4 from 3 point range, and also had six board, four assists and two steals.

“It just came to me,” recalled Jones afterwards. “Everybody knows I’m not too much of an offensive player and I don’t value that much. But if it comes and I am feeling good then it is there.”

In the second half, Mississippi State held a comfortable double-digit advantage for most of the way. The Lions did make a late 8-0 spurt to get within 68-62 in the closing minutes but could get no closer the remainder of the way.

For the game, State shot 45% from the field and made 9 of 24 from the 3 point arc. The Bulldogs were 16 of 23 at the foul line, had 16 turnovers and out-rebounded SELA, 43-33.

The Lions shot 36% from the floor and made just 4 of 25 from 3 point territory, including an 0 of 12 showing in the second half. The Lions were 16 of 18 at the charity stripe and had 10 turnovers.

“It is something we have to work on,” Jones noted of turnovers. “Turnovers are a part of basketball. We will get back in the gym all weekend and work on it even harder and better. Push each other, defensively, so we can get a look at what other teams are trying to do to us if they see us struggling with that.”

For Epps, it was his first game back since missing the Iowa State game due to a concussion. He was 3 of 6 from the floor and had two assists with one turnover in 17 minutes of action.

“It was good to see (Epps) out there,” Jans mentioned. “He looked like Jayden looks in practice, for the most part. I thought he gave us a lift and scored some baskets for us, obviously had 10 points in 17 minutes. But just happy for him, happy for us that he got back on the floor and hopefully this will really help him going forward.”

The first half featured several runs by both teams from start to finish. The Bulldogs used a 9-0 run to grab an early 13-7 lead following a Hubbard 3 point play before the Lions answered with a 12-0 run to grab a 19-15 lead. Mississippi State answered with seven straight points and eventually held a 40-35 halftime advantage.

In the opening half, State shot 43% from the field and made 4 of 11 beyond the 3 point arc. The Bulldogs were 10 of 12 at the foul line, had seven turnovers and out-rebounded Southeastern Louisiana, 24-17, in the first half.

The Lions shot 32% from the field in the half and made 4 of 13 from 3 point territory. SELA was 9 of 9 at the charity stripe and had only three turnovers in the half.

“We got to get right first,” added Jans. “We got to be able to guard the ball and guard the point of attack first. I told them going into the game I am going to be hyper-focused on this and this is what we got to get right first. If you can’t do that then you can’t guard at all.

“We got a couple of guys who didn’t do it. So we had some early subs and that wasn’t the plan. One of them picked it up and the other one didn’t. We have to play the way we have to play and we are not there yet. We are still playing a lot of guys and fortunately for us, we can. But it will shrink once we get some guys to completely buy in to how we need to guard the ball.”

Up Next

Mississippi State returns to action on Thursday in Kansas City, Mo., in the Hall of Fame Classic. The Bulldogs open that two-game tournament against Kansas State (3-0) with an 8:30 p.m. tipoff and the game is on Peacock. On Friday, Mississippi State will face either Nebraska or New Mexico based on the outcome of Thursday’s game. Kansas State has opened the season with wins over UNC-Greensboro, Bellarmine and California, and the Wildcats will host Tulsa on Monday.