Men’s Hoops Downed by LSU, 94-80

Wednesday, February 10

Starkville

8:00 PM

Mississippi State

11-10,5-7SEC

LSU

12-6,7-4SEC

LSU

Mississippi St.

Photo by: Matt Bush-USA TODAY Sports

Men’s Hoops Downed by LSU, 94-80

February 11, 2021 | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)Video: Coach Howland Presser Video: Tolu Smith Presser Postgame Quotes (PDF)

STARKVILLE – Tolu Smith registered his second 20-10 performance of the season, while Derek Fountain poured in a season's best 20 points, but the Mississippi State men's basketball team fell in a shootout to LSU, 94-80, on Wednesday at Humphrey Coliseum.

The Bulldogs (11-10, 5-7 SEC) dropped their third consecutive decision to LSU (12-6, 7-4 SEC) and remained in a three-way tie for eighth place in the SEC standings.

For Smith, he compiled his SEC-leading sixth double-double of the season. He racked up 24 points on an effective and efficient 10-of-11 shooting clip. The 24-point effort was his third of the 2020-21 campaign, and he also hauled down 11 rebounds.

It only took the first half for Fountain to eclipse his career-high as he worked his way to 15 of his 20 points during the first 20 minutes of the contest. His offensive attack was fueled by an 8-for-12 clip and four three-pointers. The Holly Springs native entered the contest with five treys in his first six appearances. Fountain also grabbed a career-high seven rebounds and handed out two assists.

Iverson Molinar and Deivon Smith gave the Bulldogs a quartet of players in double figures. Molinar poured in 16 points and dished out four assists, while Deivon Smith tacked on 12 points of his own.

D.J. Stewart Jr. and Quinten Post rounded out the scoring for the Bulldogs. Stewart Jr. handed out four assists but was held to five points on eight field goals whereas Post scored his lone point on a free throw.

Abdul Ado made his 118th career start, which moved him past former teammate Quinndary Weatherspoon (2016-17-18-19) into sole possession of third place. He tallied two points, six rebounds and three assists. The six rebounds enabled Ado to surpass Jerry Graves (1959-60-61) for 11th place on the program's all-time list.

For the contest, Mississippi State came away with a 30-of-56 shooting effort (53.6 percent), a 9-for-24 clip on triples (37.5 percent) and rattled home an 11-of-16 clip at the free throw line (68.8 percent).

State dropped to 8-2 when four players record double figures and fell to 7-1 when hitting at least eight three-pointers in a game this season.

The Bulldogs registered 18 assists against 15 turnovers, while the Tigers provided 22 assists versus seven turnovers. Keys for LSU were a 26-3 edge in points off turnovers, and a 24-8 advantage in fastbreak points.

The Tigers countered with a 38-of-62 mark from the floor (61.3 percent), a 10-of-22 performance from three-point territory (45.5 percent) and was 8-of-11 on foul shots (72.7 percent).

Cameron Thomas delivered 25 points and four assists. Darius Days and Javonte Smart also turned in double-doubles for LSU. Days collected 16 points and 11 rebounds whereas Smart piled up 22 points and dished out 11 assists.

FROM THE BENCH – COACH HOWLAND
"We had problems just matching up and not communicating. I was really, really disappointed in our transition defense. The turnovers we did have, which were 15-to-8 for them, we had 15 turnovers. They led like 26 points. Every time we'd turn it over, it was a dunk at the other end. Again, some of those are freshmen mistakes. We just did very poorly defensively. Give them credit for being so good offensively.

"We shot 53 percent, and we had a chance there. We had the game on Deivon's [Smith] big time play to get it down to 73-70 with eight minutes left. … That means we scored 10 points in the last eight minutes of the game. I thought that was a key juncture where we could have really made a push because we got really infused with some adrenaline on that great play. They came down to score on us two or three times in a row really simply. I mean an out-of-bounds play for a layup. It's like simple things that just can't happen to beat a really good team who's a tournament team like LSU is."

"I thought he [Derek Fountain] had a great first half in particular. He really did a good job in terms of playing with poise. I think he was 6-for-7 in the first half. He did a great job helping us get back in the game, just proud of how he's developed and how he's playing for us right now. You can see he has a very bright future ahead of him. There's a lot of things he can get better at. He made a lot of freshman mistakes tonight, especially at the defensive end of the floor. He's got to learn to sit down lower when he's guarding. [Javonte] Smart went right by him a couple of times."

"We didn't do enough to get D.J. [Stewart Jr.] more looks. I mean D.J. had only taken eight shots. That's not enough shots for D.J. We've got to do a better job, give their defense credit because that'll limit him each shot attempt. That hurt us, not getting D.J. more looks."

MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
The Bulldogs drained their first four shots and six of their first nine from the floor to build a 15-9 advantage during the opening 5:10 of the contest.

Iverson Molinar started the scoring with a midrange jumper on the left elbow. Then, D.J. Stewart Jr. canned a right wing triple followed by a Deivon Smith driving layup to make it 7-4 with 18:22 remaining.

After two Abdul Ado free throws, Molinar delivered a floater in the lane coupled with a pair offensive rebound baskets courtesy of Tolu Smith and Derek Fountain to extend MSU's advantage to 15-9 with 14:50 left.

Up 24-20 at the 10:09 mark, the Tigers were able to turn the tables with 11 consecutive points over the next 3:17 off the clock. Darius Days and Javonte Smart bookended the flurry with a three-pointer and a driving layup to vault LSU ahead 31-24 with 6:52 to go.

The Bulldogs fought back Fountain, who ripped off 15 first-half points on a scorching 6-of-7 clip. He showcased his skillset by knocking down a floater, a left wing three-pointer, a right wing trifecta and a midrange jumper. Deivon Smith rattled home a right baseline triple to pull State within 41-39 at the intermission.

LSU began the second 20 minutes with 11 of the first 15 points of the stanza to open up a 52-43 edge at the 16:05 mark. Aundre Hyatt provided the spark for the Tigers with seven points.

Down 71-62 with 9:45 on the clock, Mississippi State made its final charge behind an 8-2 spurt. Fountain connected with Molinar for three at the top of the key. Tolu Smith added a putback layup, and Deivon Smith broke away for a one-hand jam to bring the Bulldogs within 73-70 at the 8:01 mark.

LSU fired back with a 9-2 flurry of its own over a 2:39 span. Smart got the Tigers going with a jumper followed by a Thomas three-pointer, a Smart layup and a Josh LeBlanc dunk to put the game back to double figures, 82-72, with 5:22 to go.

LSU went up by as many as 17 with one minute remaining. Tolu Smith wrapped up his 20-10 performance with a layup, and Derek Fountain got to the 20-point barrier with a trey for the final margin of 94-80.

UP NEXT
Mississippi State completes the first of its five home-and-home series and takes on Vanderbilt for a Saturday matinee. Tip time is schedule for 12 p.m. CT from Humphrey Coliseum, televised by SEC Network and available online courtesy of the Watch ESPN app.

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.