Mississippi State locks down, knocks down shots in season-opening win
- Story byNortheast Mississippi Daily Journal, Tupelo
- Mississippi State locks down, knocks down shots in season-opening win
STARKVILLE – Once the defense hunkered down and the shots started falling, the rest took care of itself.
Mississippi State men's basketball shot 50% from 3-point range and 58% from the field in its 106-88 win over Tennessee Tech to open the 2026-27 season on Monday night in the Humphrey Coliseum.
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The Bulldogs (1-0) had trouble pulling away from the Golden Eagles (0-1) early due to turnovers. MSU had surrendered five turnovers, which led to 11 Tennessee Tech points, and allowed the visitors to make five 3-pointers up to that point.
With just under five minutes left, Josh Hubbard broke a tie with his first three of the game. King Grace followed with one of his own, then T.J. Simpkins made a 3-point play to make it 40-31 with 3:34 to go before halftime.
Grace nailed two more threes in the span of a minute, then Hubbard nailed another to make it 51-35 Bulldogs at the 1:25 mark. The Golden Eagles went 4 minutes, 24 seconds without making a field goal.
"We started guarding the ball better. We started figuring out how we needed to guard them with some more switching. We started switching a lot more than what our base is," State coach Chris Jans said. "And then the other thing that probably led to it is we didn't turn the ball over. I don't think we turned the ball over the last 10 or 11 minutes of the second half, after starting off with eight to open the game."
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Hubbard led the way with 25 points, and Grace had a career-high 23 off the bench. Simpkins had 15, Thomas Bassong 14 and R.J. Johnson 12.
Hubbard and Grace are the only two players from last season's team that stayed in Starkville. Grace's familiarity with the system was beneficial to his performance, but he still had to get used to so many new teammates.
"I think it helped a little bit, with it being a new team," Grace said. "But at the same time, I've still got to learn new faces, new IQs, new players I'm playing with, so it helped a little bit."
Johnson set the tone with a three out of halftime. The teams went back and forth for a bit before Grace nailed his fourth three. He was fouled attempting to make his fifth and made two of three free throws to make it 67:48 with 13:47 left to play.
The Bulldogs return to action on Thursday when they host Northwestern State. Tip-off is at 6:30 p.m. on SEC Network+.
