On a brisk Saturday night in Starkville, Mississippi, the 14th-ranked Mississippi State Bulldogs and the 6th-ranked Kentucky Wildcats went to The Hump for a Saturday night showdown between two Southeastern Conference contenders. Saturday night was the type of environment that you dream about; the crowd inside the Hump was early and loud as they longed for the moment to blow the roof off the place giving the hometown Mississippi State Bulldogs an insane home-court advantage over Kentucky.

However, Coach Mark Pope had his Kentucky Wildcats ready for the battle with Mississippi State, and the Wildcats answered the call. Mississippi State and Kentucky traded shots in the first half, but the Wildcats got the upper hand and carried a 49-44 lead to the break.

Cameron Matthews and Josh Hubbard led Mississippi State in scoring with ten points in the first half.

Kentucky came out in the second half just as they left off in the first half, guns a blazing, and extended the lead to 64-51 at the under-16 media timeout. Mississippi State put together a 15-3 run over a 3:17-minute period to cut into the Kentucky lead, making it 68-65 Wildcats with 12:15 on the game clock. At the under-12 media timeout, Kentucky held on to a 71-68 lead over the Bulldogs. Mississippi State was back in the lead at the under-8 media timeout as they retook an 80-78 lead over the Wildcats. As the final media timeout rolled around, Kentucky had a 91-86 lead over the Bulldogs, with Mississippi State at the charity stripe shooting two shots. With 1:03 on the clock, Coach Jans called a timeout as Kentucky hit a shot, making it 93-90.

Credit to Kentucky, they came into a raucous environment and didn’t allow the noise to phase them as they responded to each Mississippi State haymaker with a haymaker of their own. Kentucky came into the Hump and never backed down from each punch thrown by the Bulldogs.

For whatever reason, the Bulldogs decided that hero ball would be the theme for Saturday night, as the Bulldogs missed too many shots, costing them the game. Just too many careless shot selections, with not enough of them falling, and the Bulldogs fail to defend home court as they allow Kentucky to win 95-90.

Mississippi State will hit the road on Tuesday night as they travel to the Plains to take on the Auburn Tigers before returning home on Saturday as they welcome Ole Miss to the Hump.

Photo credits – Mississippi State Basketball on X