Mississippi State basketball: Bulldogs falter against Alabama
By Ethan Lee
Unfortunately, Ben Howland and the men’s Mississippi State basketball team could not get a much needed win over the Alabama Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa earlier this evening.
Tonight’s Mississippi State basketball game didn’t quite go as planned. The No. 22 Mississippi State men’s basketball team (15-5 overall, 3-4 SEC) couldn’t quite stop the Alabama Crimson Tide (13-7 overall, 4-3 SEC) in Tuscaloosa tonight.
As a result, MSU fell 83-79 on the road.
It didn’t help that Mississippi State fell behind early on in this game. The Bulldogs got off to a slow start while the Crimson Tide, by comparison, jumped out of the gate much quicker than MSU.
At halftime, Mississippi State trailed by 12 points, down 41-29. How did the MSU men’s basketball team get behind by that much? The Bulldogs had a difficult time making shots from anywhere on the court, but it was success behind the three-point line that really eluded Howland’s Mississippi State basketball team.
The Bulldogs hit two three-pointers in the first half. MSU attempted 10 shots from downtown. That makes for a really bad three-point shooting percentage, for what that’s worth.
Things didn’t get any better on that front inthe second half for State, but the score did turn around a bit. The Mississippi State Bulldogs got right back into the game and outscored the Alabama Crimson Tide 50-42 in the second half.
If only Mississippi State had played that way throughout the entire game. Then maybe the Bulldogs could have come out on top of a conference foe.
Yet another road trip for this Mississippi State basketball team that was certainly winnable resulted in a loss. Ben Howland has to find a way to get his team to turn some of these games around.
If the Bulldogs are going to be the type of team that makes it into the NCAA Tournament, then they can’t lose games like this regularly.
All stats via hailstate.com
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MSU has another huge road trip coming up soon. The Bulldogs travel to Oxford this Saturday to try and even up the rivalry series against the Ole Miss Rebels.