Mississippi State eyes higher begin vs. Central Michigan

Mississippi State wants to get off to a better start when it faces Central Michigan Tuesday night in Jackson, Miss.

The Bulldogs (8-1) escaped with close wins against their last two non-power-conference opponents, and they slipped out of Monday’s AP Top 25 poll as a result.

They trailed by 15 but recovered in a 91-84 home win against Prairie View A&M on Dec. 8. On Saturday, the Bulldogs faced an eight-point first-half deficit against McNeese State and trailed with five minutes left before they pulled out a 66-63 win. RJ Melendez hit a pair of free throws late in the game to seal it.

Melendez, a 6-foot-7 Georgia transfer, has scored 8.1 points per game and said the Bulldogs have to start with a great sense of urgency.

“We have to start the first half like we start the second half,” Melendez said. “We can’t wait until we get smacked in the face to respond.”

Mississippi State coach Chris Jans has experience in grinding out an opponent, but it’s not the style he’d expected from the Bulldogs.

“We haven’t talked about rock fights or making a game an alley fight,” Jans said. “In the past a lot of the games we played ended up being that way and we made it that way to be honest.”

Leading scorer Josh Hubbard (18.7 ppg) didn’t score in the final two minutes of the first half against McNeese State.

KeShawn Murphy adds 10.6 points and a team-high 7.7 rebounds per game for the Bulldogs. Cam Matthews chips in 7.9 points and 6.9 rebounds per game.

Central Michigan (5-4) out of the Mid-American Conference is No. 206 on KenPom. It should be a game the Bulldogs use as a tune-up to get ready for SEC play, which starts in January.

The Chippewas are led by Anthony Pritchard, who was the consensus preseason MAC Player of the Year and voted first-team All-MAC in the preseason coaches’ poll. The senior point guard averages a team-best 13.6 points, 4.9 assists and 4.3 rebounds per game.

Jakobi Heady (13.1 ppg), Ugnius Jarusevicius (12.4), Kyler Vanderjagt (11.4) and sixth man Damarion Bonds (11) all score in double figures for Central Michigan.

The Chippewas are coming off a break for final exams and have been beset by injuries that have limited their quality practice time. They dropped a 93-77 game at Valparaiso on Saturday.

“Our rotation guys have had to go against managers and walk-ons every day,” coach Tony Barbee said. “Iron sharpens iron and it’s hard to get better when half our team is in street clothes. It’s hard to get better coming out of finals break.”

–Field Level Media