In front of a sparse crowd at the Hump, Mississippi State welcomed Southern University from Baton Rouge for a Sunday afternoon of basketball action. Mississippi State came into the matchup on Sunday afternoon, licking the wounds of a disappointing loss during the ACC/SEC challenge to Georgia Tech. Other than the weird lone loss to Georgia Tech, Mississippi State has looked like a pretty decent basketball team with hopes of a deep run in the NCAA Tournament. Yet, Sunday happened, and Mississippi State looked about as bad as they have under Coach Jans.

However, as a tip-off between Mississippi State and Southern University rolled around on Sunday, the Bulldogs seemed stuck in the sluggish pattern that brought the Bulldogs a loss earlier in the week. A vicious cycle for Mississippi State followed on Sunday as they allowed a one-win Southern Jaguars team to hang around within striking distance of the Bulldogs.

During the first half of play on Sunday afternoon, Mississippi State struggled to put distance between them and the Jaguars of Southern, taking a three-point advantage to the break. Andrew Taylor and Cameron Mattews led the Mississippi State Bulldogs in scoring with six points in the first half.

As the first-half woes broke away, Mississippi State started the second half a bit sluggish. Mississippi State fans inside the Hump would become restless, urging the Bulldogs Basketball team to get things back on track to put Southern away. At the under-12 media timeout, Mississippi State would hold a ten-point lead over the Jaguars. As the game progressed for Mississippi State, the defense did well, but offensively, Mississippi State struggled to knock down gimmie shots to extend the lead to a manageable level. At the under-eight media timeout, Mississippi State clung to a 52-44 lead over the Jaguars. At the final media timeout of the second half, Mississippi State extended the lead to 59-50 over Southern. With 2:08 remaining on the clock, Coach Chris Jans would call a Mississippi State timeout after Southern cut the lead to 59-56. Southern would earn a steal from Mississippi State with 54.9 seconds remaining to make it 59-58 in favor of the hometown Bulldogs. Southern University would hang on to stun the Bulldogs 60-59 after hitting a floater with 8 seconds remaining.

There’s no way to describe the brutal loss tonight to Mississippi State. Brutal.

Mississippi State will return to action next Saturday as they travel to the Holiday Hoopsgiving to take on Tulane in Atlanta, Georiga.