Mississippi State basketball's road struggles continue with loss at Florida
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Winning on the road is typically a test that separates the elite from the good in college basketball, and the SEC has been a testament to that.
Entering Wednesday's games, the top half of the conference — Auburn, Tennessee, Alabama, South Carolina, Kentucky, Georgia and Texas A&M — was a combined 17-13 on the road. The teams in the bottom half were a combined 6-21.
Mississippi State finds itself in that second group, and its 79-70 loss at Florida on Wednesday showed why.
MSU (13-6, 2-4 SEC), which has lost three of four since a historic home win against No. 5 Tennessee on Jan. 10, dropped to 0-4 in road games.
The Bulldogs have struggled to find consistent scoring options outside of forward Tolu Smith and guard Josh Hubbard on the road. With Florida (13-6, 3-3) limiting Smith to10 points, it set up for another missed Quadrant 1 opportunity — despite MSU putting together a 10-0 run in the latter portion of the second half.
Josh Hubbard provides lone first-half spark
If not for Hubbard, the game likely would have gotten out of hand early. In the first half, he had 16 of his 26 points on 6-for-11 shooting, including 3-for-7 from 3-point range.
His success accounted for 47% of Mississippi State’s 34 first-half points.
The rest of the Bulldogs combined make eight of their 24 field goal attempts, one of nine 3-point attempts and one of six free throws. Smith’s six points were the most among MSU players outside of Hubbard.
Yet it wasn’t the offense that dug Mississippi State into a hole early. Florida shot nearly 50% from the field in the first half despite missing four of its first five attempts. MSU — a top-15 team nationally in terms of defensive efficiency, according to KenPom — has allowed at least 40 first-half points in half of its SEC games this season.
UF's Will Richard scored 18 of his 23 points in the first half.
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What’s next on Mississippi State’s schedule?
Another tough matchup awaits Mississippi State when it returns to Humphrey Coliseum on Saturday (2:30 p.m. CT, SEC Network) to face No. 6 Auburn. It’s the second of four straight Quad 1 games for MSU.
The Tigers have won the previous six meetings in the series. Their most recent win against Auburn came at home in 2019.
Stefan Krajisnik is the Mississippi State beat writer for the Clarion Ledger. Contact him at skrajisnik@gannett.com or follow him on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter, @skrajisnik3.
This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Mississippi State basketball takes another road loss at Florida
