STARKVILLE — RJ Melendez walked into the press conference room in Humphrey Coliseum with red, watery eyes. He took a seat next to Shawn Jones Jr. at the podium and covered his face with his shirt for a brief moment, fighting back tears.

Mississippi State basketball had just suffered an 87-82 overtime loss to Texas (17-13, 6-11 SEC) on Tuesday at Humphrey Coliseum. After charging out of a 12-point hole in the second half, the Bulldogs (20-10, 8-9) never held a lead in overtime, but were tied with 38 seconds remaining.

Melendez, when asked why he was so emotional, quickly pointed ahead to MSU’s regular season finale at Arkansas (18-12, 7-10) on Saturday (11 a.m., SEC Network).

“Arkansas,” he said. “We just got to go onto the next one. That game’s over. We just got ready for a tough road win, and then everybody loves March. It’s just a beautiful thing to be a part of and looking forward to it.”

Mississippi State was down by nine points with 3:52 remaining in regulation but closed the half on an 11-2 run. It forced overtime when Melendez, a senior forward who transferred from Georgia, stole an inbounds pass on a full-court press. His pass to Riley Kugel for an open layup tied the game with nine seconds remaining.

Melendez scored 15 points with eight rebounds, three assists, one block, and two steals.

“Our locker room was very somber to say the least,” MSU coach Chris Jans said. “We’ve obviously lost plenty of games this year, but I know that was a hard one to swallow for all of us.”

Mississippi State hasn’t been able to capture momentum in SEC play

On paper, this looked like the easiest stretch of Mississippi State’s SEC schedule. It was closing the regular season with three consecutive unranked opponents, the first time that’s happened since mid-December, so it could be the perfect crescendo into the SEC tournament and then the NCAA tournament. 

“This is March, right?” Jans said. “That’s what everybody’s searching for.”

MSU took care of business with an 81-69 win against LSU on March 1 after a 38-point loss at Alabama but stumbled again against Texas.

MORE: How far will Mississippi State women’s basketball go in SEC tournament 2025? Our predictions

It’s another instance where MSU hasn’t been able to string together wins in SEC play. It hasn’t lost three consecutive conference games but hasn’t won three in a row either. Each time it seems like the Bulldogs have turned a corner, like the back-to-back ranked wins against Ole Miss and Texas A&M two weeks ago, they lay a dud. 

“I was hoping that we could win back-to-back games at home and have some momentum going into our last road meeting, which is obviously a very difficult place to play,” Jans said. “What these kids have shown me, this group in particular, is their mental toughness, their resilience, their belief in one another. I know they’re going to regroup and get ready for one last road trip before Nashville.”

Sam Sklar is the Mississippi State beat reporter for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at ssklar@gannett.com and follow him on X @sklarsam_.

A panel of House lawmakers kept alive the effort to legalize mobile sports betting in Mississippi, but the bill does not appear to have enough support in the Senate to pass.

Hours before a Tuesday evening legislative deadline, the House Gaming Committee inserted into two Senate bills the language from a measure the full House passed last month to permit online betting. The legislation would put Mississippi on track to join a growing number of states that allow online sports wagering.

But the House Gaming Committee had to resort to the procedural move after its Senate counterpart declined to take up its bill. Senate Gaming Chairman David Blount, a Democrat from Jackson, said he does not support the measure, prompting frustration from House Gaming Chairman Casey Eure, a Republican from Saucier. Eure said he implemented suggested changes from the Senate after lawmakers couldn’t agree on a final proposal in 2024.

“This shows how serious we are about mobile sports betting,” Eure said. “I’ve done everything he’s asked for … I’ve done everything they’ve asked for plus some.”

In a February 88-10 vote, the House approved a new version of the Mississippi Mobile Sports Wagering Act, which Eure said was reworked to address concerns raised by the Senate last year. The new version would allow a casino to partner with two sports betting platforms rather than one. Allowing casinos to partner with an extra platform is designed to assuage the concerns of casino leaders and lawmakers who represent areas where gambling is big business.

Last year, some lawmakers raised concerns that gambling platforms would have no incentive to partner with smaller casinos, and most of the money would instead flow to the Mississippi Gulf Coast’s already bustling larger casinos.

Other changes include a provision that prevents people from placing bets with credit cards, a request from the Senate to guard against gambling addiction.

Blount said there were growing concerns in other states that have legalized online sports betting, including over what consumer protections can be put in place and the impact legalization could have on existing gambling markets.

READ MORE: House panel approves casino tax increase, a shot over bow on blockage of online sports betting

“This is a different industry than any other industry because it is subject to forces outside of the control of the folks who are on this business,” Blount said. “And so what I think we need to do as a state, and we have done this for decades, is we have provided a stable regulatory environment, regardless of who is in the legislature, regardless of who the governor is, without a lot of drama.”

The proposal would levy a 12% tax on sports wagers, with revenue reaching all 82 counties via the Emergency Road and Bridge Repair Fund. Eure said he believes the state is losing between $40 million and $80 million a year in tax revenue by keeping mobile sports betting illegal.

Proponents also say legalization would undercut the influence of illicit offshore sports betting platforms.

Since the start of the NFL season this year, Mississippi has recorded 8.69 million attempts to access legal mobile sportsbooks, according to materials presented to House members at an earlier committee meeting. That demand fuels a thriving illegal online gambling market in Mississippi, proponents have said. Opponents say legalization could devastate the bottom line of smaller casinos and lead to debt and addiction among gamblers.

Mobile sports betting is legal in 30 states and Washington, D.C., according to the American Gaming Association.

The House panel inserted the mobile sports betting language into SB 2381 and SB 2510. The bills now head to the full chamber for consideration.