Mississippi
Men’s Basketball: Mississippi State overcomes ugly start in win over Prairie View A&M
STARKVILLE — Chris Jans would have preferred not to need Cameron Matthews on Sunday.
Mississippi State’s head coach said the fifth-year senior forward has been dealing with a foot injury for “weeks,” and that Matthews had not touched a basketball since Wednesday night’s win over Pittsburgh. But with the Bulldogs chasing the lead for almost the entire first half against Prairie View A&M, Jans broke glass in case of emergency and inserted Matthews into the game.
Matthews looked hobbled at times but played nearly all of the second half as MSU rallied for a 91-84 win over the scrappy Panthers after trailing by as many as 15 points early. He and the Bulldogs will have five days off before taking the court again Saturday against McNeese in Tupelo.
“I didn’t want to necessarily play him, but he was going to be available if we thought we needed him to win this game,” Jans said. “We decided to make the decision, and he certainly had a big impact on the game. He changed the tenor of the game at the end of the first half and the minutes he played in the second half.”
Prairie View entered Sunday with the worst scoring defense among 355 Division I teams, allowing 98.5 points per game. MSU (8-1) had just 14 points 10 minutes into the game and missed 11 of their first 16 shots before finding their rhythm.
The far bigger issue for the Bulldogs, though, was on the defensive end. The Panthers (1-8) made six straight shots early in the game and used a 13-0 run to build a 27-12 lead as MSU’s defensive intensity from its blowout of Pitt four days earlier was nowhere to be found. Prairie View made 56.4 percent of its shots for the game and finished 10-for-19 from 3-point range.
“It was not a very good performance defensively,” Jans said. “They have good players, and when you give good players confidence, anything can happen. Some of it was that, some of it was just guys not being where they should be positionally. The early success they had against us gave their team confidence, gave their staff confidence, and they rode that.”
The Bulldogs gradually reeled the Panthers back in over the last 10 minutes of the first half. A Josh Hubbard 3-pointer cut the MSU deficit to two with just more than a minute left, and Claudell Harris Jr.’s baseline jumper tied the game going into the break.
Hubbard shook off a slow start and led all scorers with 25 points, while Harris had 21 on 6-for-9 shooting. Each finished with 16 second-half points, including seven apiece during a 14-1 run that turned a one-point deficit into a 12-point Bulldogs lead.
“I have a lot of talented teammates,” Harris said. “I see them work hard day in and day out, so (it’s about) trusting that they’re going to make plays for themselves, make plays for me. I’m just focusing on the defense, and it came to me tonight.”
Shawn Jones Jr., making his fourth start of the season, had 11 points, and Michael Nwoko and RJ Melendez added 10 each. Nwoko recorded his second straight double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds in just 16 minutes. Matthews, after checking in for the first time with four minutes and 10 seconds left in the first half, ended up playing 22 minutes and finished with six points, seven rebounds and six assists.
MSU overcame a trio of strong offensive performances from Prairie View — Nick Anderson had 21 points, Tanahj Pettaway added 20 and was 4-for-5 from distance, and Marcel Bryant chipped in with 19. Panthers starting post player Ryan Bolton Jr., though, fouled out with nearly 16 minutes remaining in the second half.
Last season on an early December Sunday afternoon, the Bulldogs blew a late 11-point lead and lost to SWAC member Southern, but this year’s group managed to avoid a bad loss at the same juncture of the season.
“(We were) just trying to do anything we can to help each other win and not giving up,” Jones said. “Last year, we gave up and we thought it was going to be a cakewalk. We came in this year and did the same thing. We just had a different mindset toward the end of the game, and that was just staying together, sticking together, and playing our basketball.”
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Brian O’Connor introduced as new Mississippi State baseball coach
Watch Brian O’Connor’s first news conference as the Mississippi State baseball coach.
- New Mississippi State baseball coach Brian O’Connor retained interim coach Justin Parker as pitching coach.
- O’Connor was impressed with Parker’s pitching staff during the Charlottesville Regional matchup between Mississippi State and Virginia last season.
This story was updated to change a photo.
STARKVILLE — New Mississippi State baseball coach Brian O’Connor brought two assistant coaches with him from Virginia, Kevin McMullan and Matt Kirby. However, he picked one MSU assistant to stay with him on staff.
The Bulldogs retained Justin Parker as the pitching coach. The news was announced just hours before O’Connor’s introduction at Dudy Noble Field on June 5.
Parker was the interim MSU coach after Chris Lemonis was fired on April 28. He led the Bulldogs to a 9-1 finish to the regular season and an NCAA tournament at-large bid.
“I felt like that we really needed on this staff, somebody who had connections in the southeast from a recruiting standpoint,” O’Connor, hired on June 1, said. “A couple of things in Justin Parker’s favor is that he’s coached four years in the SEC. He knows this league.”
O’Connor also recalled last season’s Charlottesville Regional where Mississippi State and Virginia played each other twice. The Cavaliers won both games, but O’Connor said he was impressed with Parker’s pitching staff.
He mentioned Parker’s development with young pitchers, specifically Charlie Foster, Ryan McPherson and Dane Burns.
“Not only is he a developer of their skill and going to help them not only win for Mississippi State, but also be successful after their time here, I happen to feel he’s also a good man,” O’Connor said, who’d been the Virginia coach since 2004. “That is the fiber of what he’s about, is what I’m about.”
O’Connor’s hiring was announced an hour after the MSU season ended in the Tallahassee Regional. The team bussed back to Starkville the next day, where O’Connor was already there. O’Connor said he’s completed 30-minute exit interviews with every player on the team that has eligibility, but also spent time with Parker. He said they’ve been together on six different occasions since June 2 ranging from 30 minutes to two hours.
“I certainly had conversations with other candidates and things like that,” O’Connor said. “That’s part of the process, right? But ultimately landed on he is the man that is most qualified and best here at Mississippi State to lead this pitching staff moving forward.”
Sam Sklar is the Mississippi State beat reporter for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at ssklar@gannett.com and follow him on X @sklarsam_.
Auburn’s had some success in recent years recruiting the state of Mississippi.
Corey Wells is another prospect out of the Magnolia State to keep an eye on.
The 6-foot-5 defensive lineman out of Petal, Miss., wrapped up a midweek official visit Thursday, as the Tigers are one of four SEC schools getting Wells on an official this summer.
“I loved it, I ain’t gonna lie,” Wells said. “From the moment I stepped in, I already knew I was gonna love it. I mean, it’s big, it’s beautiful. I mean, the coach is great, and it just feels right.”
Auburn was the second official visit for Wells, who previously took an official with Ole Miss. He has upcoming officials with Texas and Mississippi State, but the Tigers made a strong impression during his first ever trip to the Plains. What stood out the most about his Auburn visit?
“Talking with the coaches, watching the coaches practice with the players, the photo shoot, the food — the food was real good,” Wells said.
Wells spent plenty of time with defensive tackles coach Vontrell King-Williams during the visit. His biggest takeaway was that King-Williams genuinely cares for his players and gets the best out of them.
“Coach Vontrell, he’s a good coach, he gets after it,” Wells said. “He loves his players, he’s gonna teach his players, he’s gonna make sure his players get after it, make sure they’re good.”
Head coach Hugh Freeze also is involved in Wells’ recruitment.
“He loves us Mississippi boys,” Wells said. “Mississippi is very underrated, and coaches like him just coming to get us. I appreciate it, and I feel like all Mississippi boys are gonna appreciate it.”
Following the visit, Wells has Auburn sitting “top three” in his recruitment, with a plan to make a decision sometime before his senior season.
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