STARKVILLE, Miss. — No. 14 Mississippi State men’s basketball team dropped a close one against rival Ole Miss Saturday afternoon as they fell 81-77 at Humphrey Coliseum. The Bulldogs drop to 12-3 (0-2 SEC), while the Rebels improve 13-2 (3-0 SEC). Ole Miss has now won 10 straight games. Nick Weatherspoon hit a game-tying three with 1:12 remaining in the game to tie it at 77-77 before an Ole Miss layup by Breein Tyree gave the Rebels a 79-77 lead. Quinndary Weatherspoon then missed a jumper, which lead to Ole Miss missing a one-and-one free throw that was rebounded by MSU’s Abdul Ado. However, the Bulldogs failed to capitalize as Lamar Peters missed a jumper that led to a Bulldog turnover. Tyree hit two game-clinching free throws to give the Rebels the 81-77 win. The first half saw six lead changes, but Mississippi State held a 41-39 lead at halftime, led by 11 points from Quinndary Weatherspoon. The Bulldogs also received 11 points from the bench in the half. MSU scored the first seven points of the second half, as the Bulldogs led 48-39 with 18:01 remaining, but back to back to back three’s from Rebels’ Blake Hinson saw the Rebels climb back to make it a 54-51 game with State leading. Ole Miss took a 56-55 with 12:31 left. Ole Miss led 70-62 with 7:01 remaining before the Bulldogs cut it to 72-69 off of an Aric Holman three pointer. MSU had their chances late in the game, but it was the Rebels who secured the Southeastern Conference win. Quinndary Weatherspoon led the team with 18 points on 6-12 shooting. Peters and Nick Weatherspoon also turned in double-digit scoring performances with 16 and 11 respectively. The Bulldogs held a 38-30 rebounding advantage, out-rebounding the Rebels both offensively and defensively. Ado led the Bulldogs with 11 rebounds while Quinndary Weatherspoon compiled eight boards. Hinson led the Rebels with a career-high 26 points on 8-of-16 shooting, including a career-high five made threes. The Bulldogs will be back in action Tuesday when they host the Florida Gators as they hope to secure their first SEC win. Tip-off is set for 6 p.m. CT and will be televised by SEC Network.<doc-sep>The Florida Gators basketball team is stuck in a rut and it just can’t find a way out. For the third time in the first four SEC games, Florida found itself in a late battle and couldn’t close it out. Mississippi State came into Tuesday’s game as the 24th ranked team in the country, but it was not in a good place after losing its previous two contests. As both teams tried to get things back on track, it was the Bulldogs who ultimately came out victorious on their home court. The Gators scored the first points of the game but were then subject to a 9-0 run by the Bulldogs over the next four minutes. Florida worked its way back within a point before tying it a couple times over the following minutes and taking a 24-23 lead on a three-point play by Noah Locke. Locke hit a jumper on the next possession to go up by three, but that was no match for what was to come from MSU’s Lamar Peters. Peters took it upon himself to score 11 straight points with no answers from the Gators, putting the Bulldogs up 34-26 at the three-minute mark of the first half. Florida’s freshmen stepped up in the final minutes of the half as Keyontae Johnson drained a three, got a steal on the other end and Andrew Nembhard hit a jumper to bring it back within three points. The Bulldogs answered with a jumper, but Nembhard found an open Johnson with the last few seconds ticking off the clock, and he knocked down another triple. Despite letting the game get a bit out of hand early, the Gators went to the locker room trailing just 36-34. Florida had taken control of the lead back less than two minutes into the second half as Locke had been unusually quiet in the first 20 minutes but made his first shot from deep to go up 39-38. Johnson continued his sharp shooting with another three ball and Locke found Kevarrius Hayes for a dunk a couple possessions later to stretch the lead to five points. From there, the Gators went on a scoring drought of over four minutes and allowed the Bulldogs to jump right back on top 47-45. A couple of nice layups from Nembhard with a pair of free throws from KeVaughn Allen sandwiched in between helped the Gators take the lead once again. But every time it seemed Florida took a step in the right direction, it took two steps back. The game went back and forth multiple times for the next few minutes. Then, with the Gators hanging onto a two-point advantage, Allen missed a three, Johnson grabbed the offensive board and put it right back into the hands of Allen and he redeemed himself from way downtown. That made it 66-61 with 2:56 remaining, and it felt like the air was finally being let out of MSU’s sails. Instead, the Bulldogs answered with five quick points to tie it at the 1:25 mark. Nembhard couldn’t get a three to go the next time the Gators had the ball, but Hayes came up with a big block on the other end. The ball stayed with MSU with little time remaining on the shot clock, and Aric Holman managed to make a layup with 24 seconds on the clock. Again, Nembhard tried a quick three that was easily blocked by the Bulldogs. Both teams scrambled for the loose ball and it looked like MSU would come away with it, but it somehow ended up in the hands of Locke, who hit a short jumper. The clutch shot by the freshman made it 68-68 with just 10 seconds standing between Florida and a chance in overtime. But 10 seconds was plenty of time for Q Weatherspoon to get down the court and take it right to the basket for a layup, which turned into a three-point play as Hayes fouled. The Gators still had 3.6 seconds to respond. Florida put it in the hands of its best shooter, and Allen had a look, but he just missed. Some questioned if there should have been a foul called on the Bulldogs on the play, but officials confirmed that Allen did not get the shot off before time expired. The Gators came so close but were still so far as they fell 71-68 in Starkville. This team continues to struggle with taking ill-advised shots as it made 10-of-31 three-point attempts on the night, while MSU made the same number of threes on close to half the attempts. Defense has been the one thing Florida could really lean on this season, but White felt it was a letdown on Tuesday. The Gators allowed the Bulldogs to shoot 53 percent from the floor, and while they did a good job of stopping Peters (who had 16 first half points) in the final 20 minutes, the Weatherspoons combined for 14 in the second half along with 10 more from Holman. “We had some empty possessions late that obviously hurt us, but we also couldn’t come up with stops in the last 10 minutes of the game,” White said. “We never got into a great defensive rhythm in this game.” While Allen couldn’t make the shot he needed to in the end, he led the Gators with 17 points. Behind him, Nembhard had 13 points and 8 of Florida’s 18 assists in the game. Locke finished with 12 and Johnson had 11. It certainly isn’t the end of the world, but this was a game that felt like a must-win for the Gators to get this conference season turned around. Florida now falls to a 1-3 SEC record as it continues to try to figure its ongoing issues out. The next chance for redemption comes on Saturday in another road test at Georgia.<doc-sep>Ben Howland’s Mississippi State basketball team could really use a win to get going again. Vic Schaefer’s Mississippi State basketball team is dominating foes as usual. Look, the season isn’t over for the men’s Mississippi State basketball team by a long shot. The sky isn’t falling. Things aren’t all said and done just yet, but, well, they aren’t good at the moment. If Ben Howland’s Bulldogs aren’t able to defeat the Florida Gators tonight, then things are going to get very tense around the men’s basketball program. On the other hand, the women’s Mississippi State basketball team is doing great! The Bulldogs are coming off of four straight SEC wins and are crushing foes left and right. Things are going well for Vic Schaefer’s team. But Schaefer’s team isn’t playing tonight. Howland’s team is. So, here’s some news and notes and links to help you get prepped for tonight’s game. Cool stuff from around the internet: 2019 college baseball preseason Top 25: Takeaways die-hard fans need to know– Patrick Schmidt, a senior editor for FanSided, has given me the green light to bring college baseball coverage back to the network’s main page. For those that don’t know, FanSided is a large network and Maroon and White Nation is just one part of that network. On the main FanSided page, there’s a variety of different sections. One of those sections happens to be college baseball. Expect more to be coming there shortly! also, @PatrickASchmidt gave me the green light to bring college baseball coverage back to @FanSided so let's make this happen pic.twitter.com/JneesCgmS1 — Ethan Lee (@leeethanj) January 14, 2019 In case you missed it from Maroon and White Nation: Let’s do some good: Sarah Barnes’s Medical Expenses– The Barnes family is having to deal with trying to pay off some hospital bills. They love Mississippi State and could use some help. We should do something to help them out. This GoFundMe provides us with the opportunity to do just that. The Marcus Murphy situation could still use some clarification: Mississippi State football: Marcus Murphy shouldn’t have to worry about the NCAA– Marcus Murphy is a Mississippi State football player. He’s also a son who recently lost his mother and he’s a father trying to take care of a son who needs a bone marrow transplant. After a GoFundMe was set up by members of the West Point community to help with the funeral expenses for Murphy’s mother, Bracky Brett (MSU’s NCAA compliance guy) tweeted this vague statement: MSU Compliance does not "approve" gofundme accounts. Any activity by boosters that benefits student athletes contrary to NCAA guidelines can have an effect on a student athletes eligibility. — Bracky Brett (@MSUcompliance) January 9, 2019 That’s really very little help for people who don’t dig through NCAA regulations and bylaws all day. When we reached out to Brett to try and get some clarification, he never responded. We’ve tried to follow up with him on three different occasions and still, no response. People want to help, but with that possibility looming over everything, many may not. Some clarification is needed here, but it looks like Mississippi State’s athletic department will fail to do so.<doc-sep>
Breein Tyree is officially a hero. The undersized guard drove hard to the rim to push Ole Miss ahead, 79-77, in the closing seconds of Saturday’s rivalry bout in Starkville, and in so doing spurred an upset win over No. 14 Mississippi State, 81-77. That makes two top-25 upsets in the span of one week, perhaps the most successful seven-day span in the last six years. The first 10 minutes of this affair dictated how the rest of the afternoon would play out. Breein Tyree took a hard screen directly to his left shoulder and left briefly to get looked at in the locker room. Ole Miss described the injury as a shoulder sprain, but he was able to return in short order. Blake Hinson subsequently dove at a contested rebound then got tangled with Nick Weatherspoon and the wrestling match was on. Hinson led all Rebel scorers with 26 points, while Tyree chipped in 29 of his own. The Rebs deteriorated through the middle stretch of the first half, allowing 14 straight Mississippi State points, which were helped along by fast breaks, offensive rebounds, and outside shooting. That run lasted for four minutes, and it audibly turned up the Hump’s animosity against the visitors by an order of 11. Still, credit to Kermit Davis and especially Hinson and Devontae Shuler for re-establishing composure and fighting back to bring the proceedings to a 41-39 advantage for CLANGA at the half. It could have been far worse. The second half continued apace, with both sides’ shooters finding the net from range and down low. True frosh Hinson caught fire early with a corner three from the left pocket, while Abdul Ado took over on the Bulldogs’ end with a loud put-back. The Rebs gained their first lead since 10 minutes into the first half with 12 to go in the second on the strength of a Bruce Stevens three from the top of the key. The sparked a bit of a run that would see the Rebs stretch out to a 65-60 game before Ben Howland had seen enough. Devontae Shuler can and should grow his game. The most glaring weakness in Shuler’s game right now is accuracy, and especially out around the arc. Perhaps because of Tyree’s injury, or perhaps by design, Kermit Davis tasked Shuler with running the one spot on Saturday, and he distributed well, defended like he always does, and didn’t foul anyone. But if Shuler can build in a more accurate shooting eye, he will grow to be an Ole Miss legend. Ole Miss is a top 25 team. The Rebs rank No. 28 in the NCAA’s newly adopted NET ratings. They’ve whacked arguably a top-10 Auburn and now a top-15 Mississippi State. They’re undefeated in conference play and they just came through the toughest week of their schedule totally unscathed. Let us repeat: Ole Miss is a top 25 team.