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State routs Alabama State, 94-56, to win fourth straight

Paul Jones Mississippi State Bulldogsby: Paul Jones12/30/25PaulJonesOn3

With the long SEC grind starting on Saturday, Mississippi State head coach Chris Jans was hoping to have a stress-free outing on Monday against Alabama State. Jans got just that as his Bulldog squad produced one of its better all-around showings of the season with a ? rout of Alabama State.

Josh Hubbard had a game-high 22 points and freshman King Grace added a career-high 14 points as State won its fourth straight to improve to 8-5 on the season.

“It’s the first thing I said in the locker room to the coaches,” Jans said afterwards. “It was the first stress-free win this season that I can recall and it was nice. It was nice to have on where we didn’t have a lot of stress and we got off to a great start.

“Even considering how liberally we subbed in the second half, I thought the guys that were out there continued to play Bulldog Basketball. Obviously, we are about to play a whole different set of competition, players, coaches and teams. So we are going to have a lot of opportunities to see if we can play better.”

Hubb had a trio of 3 pointers in the opening minutes to get the rout started early. The Dogs would lead by as many as 21 in the first half before taking a 49-31 halftime advantage. Hubbard finished the game 4 of 7 from deep and also had four assists.

Achor Achor added 11 points and eight rebounds for the Bulldogs and Ja’Borri McGhee had 10. Sergej Macura had nine points for State while Quincy Ballard had eight points and a season-high 15 rebounds.

“Coach said it after the game,” noted Ballard. “Coming off the break, our practices have been way better, offensively and defensively. Obviously, it showed up in the game tonight.”

Asjon Anderson led Alabama State (3-10) with 17 points. Micah Simpson had 14 for the Hornets and Tyler Byrd added 10 points.

For the game, State shot 54% from the field and made 10 of 25 from 3 point territory. The Bulldogs were 10 of 14 at the charity stripe, had 11 turnovers and held a decisive 49-27 advantage on the backboards. Alabama State shot just 28% from the floor and made 5 of 19 beyond the 3 point arc. Alabama State was 23 of 34 at the foul line and had 12 turnovers.

“This team continues to grow and progress, and we really tweaked, offensively, what we are trying to do,” added Jans. “Then have certain individuals accept their roles that we feel puts them in their best position, which in turn puts our team in its best position. Sone guys are doing it and our offense has gotten better because of it.”

State shot 56% in that first half and made 6 of 14 from 3 point range. The Bulldogs were 5 of 6 at the foul line, had seven turnovers and dominated the boards, 24-8, including 11 offensive rebounds. Alabama State shot 33% in the opening half and made 5 of 9 beyond the 3 point arc. The Hornets were 12 of 18 at the line and had six turnovers.

Now State turns its attention to SEC action this coming weekend at Texas. And the hope is to maintain the recent momentum gained in the four-game winning streak.

“I think we’ve come together as a team,” Grace remarked. “We came back to the little things as the reason we weren’t winning games. Things like not getting the 50/50 balls. We can’t let the small things keep us from where we want to go. It’s just giving a little more effort from each and every player.”

Up Next

With the non-conference portion of the schedule now completed, Mississippi State opens the long SEC season on Saturday. The Bulldogs travel to Texas for a 5 p.m. tipoff and the game will be televised by the SEC Network. Texas is 9-4 on the season and the Longhorns’ last game was a 94-71 victory over Maryland Eastern Shore on December 22nd.

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