No. 15 Vanderbilt embarrasses Mississippi State, 88-56, at Humphrey Coliseum

Due to incoming winter weather, Saturday’s SEC matchup with Mississippi State and Vanderbilt was moved to a morning tipoff. Unfortunately, the Bulldogs never got that wakeup call.

The 32-point margin marked the third-largest defeat for head coach Chris Jans in his tenure at Mississippi State. Afterwards, Jans mentioned he was surprised by the slow start and lack of fight his team showed on Saturday.

“It surprised me,” Jans remarked. “Both teams were on the wrong side of streaks and we talked a lot about that in the last 48 hours. They brought great intensity to the start of the game. I’m not sure if our guys thought we’d get off to a good start because that has kind of been the norm for the most part in SEC play.

“We didn’t have the right mental approach or certainly the physicality, intensity and attention to detail we know we have to play with all the time. Every once in awhile you can punch someone hard two or three times and they don’t get off the mat. I felt like that is what happened to us. After the first 10-12 minutes, we didn’t find a group of guys that decided we were going to dust ourselves off and punch back.”

Tyler Nickel and Devin McGlockton also finished in double digits for Vanderbilt (17-3 overall, 4-3 in the SEC) with 13 and 10 points, respectively.

Jayden Epps was the lone Mississippi State player in double digits with 14 points. After an 2-0 SEC start, the Bulldogs have dropped five straight games and fell to 10-10 and 2-6.

Vanderbilt led by as many as 34 points in the second half and shot 54% for the game. The Commodores also made 8 of 25 from 3 point territory and made 10 of 11 at the foul line. Vanderbilt outscored Mississippi State, 50-22, in points in the paint and never trailed in the game.

Mississippi State shot just 34% for the game and made 5 of 26 from 3 point range. The Bulldogs were 11 of 17 at the foul line had 17 turnovers. Sergej Macura had eight points and eight rebounds for the Bulldogs while Jamarion Davis-Fleming also had eight boards.

No. 15 Vanderbilt sprinted to an 18-point lead in the opening minutes and routed the Bulldogs, 88-56. It was the fifth straight loss for Mississippi State, who fell to 10-10 overall and 2-5 in the SEC. The Commodores snapped a three-game losing slide and improved to 17-3 and 4-3.

Vanderbilt jumped out to a 22-4 lead in the opening minutes and never looked back. The Commodores made seven 3 pointers in the first half, outscored State 18-4 in points off turnovers and led 51-30 at halftime.

From start to finish, the Bulldogs showed little energy and fight, definitely not the same intensity displayed by Vanderbilt.

“They started off hot and had a good game plan, defensively and offensively,” said Josh Hubbard, who only had seven points on 2 of 10 shooting. “We kind of talked about it like a fight when we go into games. In the first round they bloodied us and after that round, we were just trying to climb out of the hole.”

In the first half, State shot just 38% from the field and made 3 of 10 beyond the 3 point arc. The Bulldogs were 5 of 10 at the line, had 11 turnovers and outrebounded the Commodores, 19-16, in the first half. Vanderbilt shot 56% in the opening half and made 7 of 18 from 3 point range. The Commodores were 6 of 6 at the charity stripe and had four turnovers.

Now the Bulldogs have to go on the road next week for a pair of league outings and that will be a difficult setting while trying to get the season back on track.

“We’ve just got to lift each other up,” Epps noted. “At the end of the day, when we get down we got to find a way to get back up. We’re going to just keep fighting. We’re going to be down again this year so we will have to fight back. That is something we have to get better at and keep working at.”

Up Next

Mississippi State begins a two-game road swing on Wednesday as the Bulldogs head to Baton Rouge, La., for a 6 p.m. tipoff with LSU. The game will be televised by the SEC Network. LSU was 13-6 overall and 1-5 in the SEC heading into Saturday’s road game at Arkansas.