MSU Tops LSU Behind Defense And D.J.

STARKVILLE – Mississippi State’s Shawn Jones, Jr. might’ve summed it up best on Wednesday night.

“If you can play defense every possession, you’ll be fine,” the freshman guard said.

Well, the Bulldogs did that and more, also getting a season-best 18 points from D.J. Jeffries to roll to a 64-53 win over LSU at Humphrey Coliseum.

Jeffries sank a career-high five 3-pointers on the way to cracking the 1,000-point mark for his career, while Shakeel Moore and Tolu Smith joined Jeffries in double-figure scoring, totaling 13 and 10 points respectively as State won its fourth in a row.

And while Jeffries, Moore and Smith took care of much of MSU’s scoring burden, it was once again the Bulldog defense ensuring the State offense didn’t go to waste.

MSU held LSU without a field goal for nearly 12 straight minutes of game action. The Tigers had their final bucket of the first half with 7:20 left before the intermission and didn’t strike from the field again until the 15:23 mark of the second half.

In the process, Mississippi State was able to turn a six-point deficit into an 11-point lead. From that point on, LSU never got any closer than six.

It was certainly a game-altering sequence. However early on, it didn’t appear a Bulldog comeback would even be necessary.

Mississippi State started the night on a 10-0 run. The Hump was rocking.

However, things quickly changed when LSU scored 10 unanswered of its own to knot the score. LSU eventually built its lead up to six, riding four 3-pointers over the first 10 minutes of the game.

Soon though, the Bulldogs adjusted.

“We were frustrated early with our lack of contesting 3s,” State head coach Chris Jans explained. “Obviously that’s not the right recipe for success. We were pretty aggressive with our denials in the early part of the possession. That was part of the plan. But after that, we wanted to shrink the floor. We kept ourselves extended so guys stayed in denial a little bit too long and then obviously [LSU] has quick guards and they took advantage of us and got in the gaps and got to the rim and scored and kicked it out for open 3s. That’s probably what we shored up the best was going from that frenetic denial early and, in the same possession after that’s over, getting in those gaps and trying to keep the ball from getting in the paint.”

By halftime, MSU’s…