After a slim 84-82 loss to the Clemson Tigers, the Mississippi State Bulldogs rebounded with a dominating victory over UT-Martin.Ben Hansbrough buried a three-pointer to give the Bulldogs an early 9-0 lead in Saturday’s non-conference game against the University of Tennessee-Martin. Then he corralled a rebound on the defensive end, worked his way up the floor and found Jamont Gordon, who made a three-pointer of his own, securing State’s lead for the rest of the game.
Mississippi State (2-1) capitalized on its scorching start and convincingly defeated the UT-Martin Skyhawks (2-3) 86-70 Saturday at the Humphrey Coliseum. The Bulldogs needed the commanding victory over the Skyhawks after Thursday night’s slim 84-82 loss to the Clemson Tigers (2-0), which snapped Mississippi State’s eight-game home winning streak.
Head coach Rick Stansbury said he was impressed with the team’s performance in Saturday’s contest, particularly from an emotional standpoint.
“I thought our kids responded the way you want them to respond [after Thursday’s game], and that’s a difficult challenge,” Stansbury said. “We left a lot of energy and emotion on that floor, and that’s what I’m the most proud of.”
Hansbrough was instrumental in the game-opening 12-0 run, which gave Mississippi State a cushion to start the game. He also shot accurately from the field throughout the contest, scoring a team-high 20 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field and 4-for-6 from behind the arc. Saturday’s game marked the second time in his collegiate career that he scored 20 points in a game.
“I just shot it more tonight,” Hansbrough said. “My role on this team is to get my shot off a lot, and that’s what I did tonight.”
The Bulldogs chalked Thursday’s loss against the Tigers to errors and missed opportunities down the stretch. In a game of 14 lead changes, Clemson finally took the lead with 2:09 left in the contest after a free throw by forward James Mays, and held it for the remainder of the contest. During the process of the final Tiger pull-away, the Bulldogs made one last effort to regain the lead.
After two free throws by Mississippi State junior forward Brian Johnson, who came off the bench to score 10 points, the Tigers took the ball back to their side of the court and put it in the hands of forward K.C. Rivers. Rivers drained a three-pointer to extend Clemson’s lead to 77-73 with 1:11 remaining in the game.
Mississippi State reverted to fouling Clemson players to send them to the free-throw line in an attempt to regain the lead, but the Tiger players sank seven of their last eight free shots to end the game.
Turnovers and missed free throws doomed the Bulldogs during the game.
Mississippi State turned the ball over 19 times, which was a stark contrast from the school record-tying four turnover performance against Louisiana Tech in the season opener. The Bulldogs shot only 61 percent from the free throw line.
Despite the effort shown in the second half, junior point guard Jamont Gordon, who notched his 11th career double-double in the contest with 23 points and 12 rebounds, still pointed to the mistakes made by the Bulldogs near the end of the game.
“A couple less turnovers and a couple of offensive rebounds, and it’s a different game,” Gordon said. “A couple of made free throws, and it’s a different game.”
The Bulldogs will not get much of a Thanksgiving break, as they will be traveling to Anaheim, Calif., for the Anaheim Classic.
They will play in their first matchup in the tournament Thursday against the University of California-Irvine at 1 p.m.