The Toughest Ticket In Town
January 08, 2023 | Men's Basketball
STARKVILLE – Once upon a time, home games inside Humphrey Coliseum were marketed as "the toughest ticket in town".
Fans would flock to watch Mississippi State men's basketball games, so much so that it was commonplace to camp outside of "The Hump" in hopes of scoring a ticket to see the Bulldogs play.
MSU has experienced a renaissance of sorts for its first two Southeastern Conference games this year. Humphrey Coliseum has had back-to-back sellouts and the support in the stands certainly played a huge role in helping the Bulldogs secure a 64-54 win over rival Ole Miss on Saturday.
"The crowd was off the charts," said head coach Chris Jans. "It was against Alabama too but we didn't give them much to cheer about in the second half. But fortunately, we did (on Saturday). They were awesome. You could feel the energy. They helped us and made (Ole Miss) call timeouts. It was a big difference on why we were able to go on as long of a run as we were."
The run Jans referred to came with the Bulldogs trailing Ole Miss by seven in the second half. The Bulldogs ripped off a 16-3 run in less than a five-minute span that sent the home crowd into a frenzy. The Rebels missed four shots, turned the ball over twice and forced coach Kermit Davis to burn a timeout during that stretch.
"We needed that homecourt advantage from our fans," said MSU forward D.J. Jeffries. "The fans make us want to go harder for them and not disappoint them. When they got behind us, we rallied together and pulled out the win for them."
State's scoring stretch was spearheaded by a pair of 3-pointers by Eric Reed Jr. and Shakeel Moore. Reed and Moore also made baskets inside the arc along with a pair of buckets from Will McNair Jr. and a layup by Tolu Smith during the Bulldogs' big run.
"It was all about how we responded and we did well," Moore said. "We executed what coach had for us. We hit some big shots down the stretch."
With Smith battling foul trouble for much of the contest, McNair came up clutch in the post for Mississippi State off the bench. McNair scored a season-best 13 points on 5 of 7 shooting while also matching his season-high with seven rebounds in 25 minutes.
"I was excited to get this opportunity and show what I could do," McNair said. "It did a lot (for my confidence). It helped me out mentally to let me know that I can actually do this at a high level."
The win improved MSU to 148-119 all-time against the Rebels, including a 98-28 edge in Starkville. With the two teams meeting twice per year during the regular season, Saturday marked the first time the Bulldogs have claimed the opening matchup against Ole Miss since 2016 but have managed to split the series in each of the past five seasons.
Next up on the slate for State are consecutive road games at Georgia and Auburn but will be back in front of another raucous home crowd in Humphrey Coliseum on Jan. 17 taking on Tennessee.
