Men’s Hoops Falls to Clemson, 53-42, in Season Opener

Wednesday, November 25

Melbourne, Fla. (Titan Field House)

7:00 PM

Mississippi State

Clemson

Men’s Hoops Falls to Clemson, 53-42, in Season Opener

November 25, 2020 | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

by Mikaela Elizondo, Graduate Assistant/Communications

MELBOURNE, Florida – The Mississippi State men's basketball team dropped a 53-42 decision to Clemson during Wednesday's season opener and semifinal round of the Space Coast Challenge.

The Bulldogs (0-1) will look to bounce back in Thursday's third-place game versus Liberty, who fell 77-64 to Purdue. Tip time is slated for 5 p.m. CT televised by CBS College Sports Network.

Mississippi State had won its previous seven season openers, which included a five-game run under head coach Ben Howland. The Bulldogs had won their last two decisions versus ACC opponents. The last time State began a season against a fellow Power Five conference opponent was in 2000-01 at California as part of the Preseason NIT.

Tolu Smith recorded his first career double-double with 12 points, 10 rebounds and two blocks, while D.J. Stewart Jr. chipped in 12 points, six rebounds, two steals and two assists.

Mississippi State started a pair of freshmen in Cameron Matthews and Deivon Smith. The duo are the fifth and sixth opening game starters for MSU under Howland. The last time the Bulldogs started a pair of true freshmen during a season opener were Tyson Carter and Mario Kegler in 2016-17. Matthews tallied eight points, five rebounds and three steals.

Jalen Johnson added five points and two rebounds, whereas Javian Davis garnered three points and seven rebounds in their MSU debuts.

For the contest, MSU connected on 15-of-50 shots from the field (30.0 percent), 4-of-13 shots from three-point range (30.8 percent) and 8-of-27 shots from the foul line (29.6 percent).

The Bulldogs had six assists and 19 turnovers, while Clemson had 13 assists and 14 turnovers. State held a 42-37 rebounding advantage over the Tigers.

Clemson shot 19-of-54 overall (35.2 percent), 5-of-25 on three-pointers (20.0 percent) and 10-of-15 at the charity stripe (66.7 percent). The Tigers were led by Al-Amir Dawes and P.J. Hall with 10 points apiece.

FROM THE BENCH WITH COACH HOWLAND
"Experience was a very important aspect going into the game. You can see how good Clemson was running their offense and being very good in their execution. We still held them to 35 percent from the field and outboarded them. Shooting 8-for-27 from the foul line is obviously atrocious and the key stat from the game. We've got to spend way more time on foul shooting because if we just make 75 percent of our shots, this means that it's a two-point game going in the last few minutes. Foul shooting was a huge factor and turnovers. 19 turnovers are way too many turnovers. Again, some of that was youth."

"It's hard to have your first game be against a really good ACC team like Clemson. It was a learning experience that we've got to learn from in a hurry because we have another really tough team tomorrow in Liberty. Liberty, as we know, is really well-coached. They have a great system. We're going to have to do a really great job and try to come out of here with a win tomorrow night."

"Tolu Smith had a double-double in his first outing, which is good. He knows, and I know that he can play way better than he played today. He's going to be improving each and every opportunity out. He hasn't played in two years because he redshirted last year, so it's been a while for him. This was good for him to get out there. We've just got to tighten up everything we do and really be better executing. We're asking him to do a lot because he's doing both the power forward and the center position, both in terms of the plays, the sets and the out of bounds plays. He's just got to slow down and take his time around the basket. But he did some really nice things for us, especially boarding the ball. Again, a double-double on his first outing, is a good first night."

"Cameron Matthews did a lot of good things. If you look at his stats, he had three steals – where he leads us in practice every day – five rebounds, played really good defense and hit the two big three's to kind of get us get going in the second half when we had nothing going. I'm really proud of his toughness. He played a lot of minutes and did a really good job."

MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Mississippi State raced out to a 7-0 lead in the opening 2:01 of the contest, courtesy of a pair of layups from Cameron Matthews and Tolu Smith coupled with a D.J. Stewart Jr. trey from the left wing.

P.J. Hall connected on a jumper for Clemson's first basket to ignite a 17-4 spurt and allow the Tigers to grab a six-point advantage, 17-11, with 6:30 on the clock. Hall compiled eight points during the run.

Clemson grabbed a 20-13 lead after a triple from Hunter Tyson. The Tigers carried a 26-19 lead into the locker room.

The Bulldogs turned to Matthews to get things started during the second minutes. He buried a trey at the top of the key on the opening possession to cut Clemson's lead to 26-22. The Tigers mounted a balanced attack as six different players tallied 13 of the next 19 points to build an 11-point edge, 39-28, with at the 13:05 mark.

Clemson continued to push and made six of nine shots to complet a 13-2 flurry to take its largest lead at 46-30 with 9:13 to go.

Mississippi State fired back and claimed the next seven points on a trio of free throws from Tolu Smith and back-to-back buckets from Stewart Jr. to pull within nine points, 46-37, with 6:46 left. MSU would get no closer than nine points as Clemson closed out the 53-42 decision.

UP NEXT
Mississippi State takes on Liberty in Thursday's third place to wrap up the Space Coast Challenge. Tip time is set for 5 p.m. televised by CBS College Sports Network.

Visit www.HailState.com for the latest news and information on the men's basketball program. Fans also can follow the program on its social media outlets by searching 'HailStateMBK' on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.