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3 takeaways from Mississippi State’s blowout win over LSU in SEC Tournament
By Andrew Olson
Published:
Mississippi State is moving on. The Bulldogs had no trouble with LSU in the opening round of the SEC Tournament, defeating the Tigers 92-61 in a dominant performance.
LSU last led 16-15 at the 12:51 mark of the 1st half. Mississippi State would take over the rest of the way, holding a 44-24 advantage at halftime and scoring even more in the 2nd half.
Here are 3 takeaways from MSU’s blowout win:
Josh Hubbard was dominant, again
When Josh Hubbard is on, he’s hard to stop. He was most definitely on against LSU, and didn’t even need a full game for a monster performance.
Hubbard set the tone with 16 points in the 1st half, draining 4 3-pointers. In the 2nd half, Hubbard put up double figures again, only playing 9 minutes. He finished the game with a game-high 26 points, playing just 26 total minutes.
No letting up in the 2nd half
Arkansas nearly let a 20-point lead slip away in the 2nd half against South Carolina. Texas saw its comfortable double-digit lead get trimmed to single digits in the final minutes against Vanderbilt. Chris Jans was not going to let the same happen to Mississippi State.
MSU had a 20-point advantage at halftime. Early in the 2nd half, Jans made a point to use his own timeout at 16:34 before the under-16 media timeout because he was unhappy with the early effort in the 2nd half.
Jans calling timeout and tearing into his team did the trick, as MSU dominated the rest of the way and cruised to a 29-point win.
Minute management
Mississippi State entered the SEC Tournament with no NCAA Tournament concerns. The Bulldogs were already considered a lock to make the field of 68 without having to worry about a First Four game. But MSU came to Nashville to try to win the SEC Tournament.
It’s difficult for any of the opening-round squads to win the conference tourney as they start facing teams that had byes or double byes, but the Bulldogs may not be as taxed as the other Wednesday winners. By dominating the 2nd half, Mississippi State allowed Jans to give his key players some rest and use the bench.
We’ll see if it makes a difference on Thursday against a Mizzou team that received an opening-round bye.
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
