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Mississippi State dropped out of the Top 25 poll this week after an 11-week stay.

But the No. 10 seed Bulldogs (20-11) have a couple of things going for them as they face No. 15 seed LSU (14-17) in the first round of the Southeastern Conference tournament on Wednesday night in Nashville, Tenn.

One is that their only victory in their last five games came against visiting LSU, 81-69, on March 1 in Starkville. The other is that MSU has won its opener in the tournament in each of head coach Chris Jans’ previous two seasons.

Last season, the Bulldogs beat LSU and Tennessee before losing to Auburn. Two years ago, they beat Florida in overtime before losing to Alabama.

“We’ll have a bounce in our step,” Jans said. “We’ve been there and done that. Our goal is going to be to go down there and to be playing for a championship.”

The Bulldogs haven’t played for the tournament championship for 15 years, but this team climbed as high as No. 14 in the AP poll, led by top scorer Josh Hubbard (18.3 points per game), an All-SEC second-team pick, and SEC All-Defensive Team forward Cameron Matthews.

The Tigers’ loss to MSU was the middle game in a season-ending five-game losing streak, culminating with a 66-52 home defeat to then-No. 22 Texas A&M on Saturday.

Fifth-year senior Jordan Sears fought through an ankle injury to score 21 points, matching his highest point total in the last 25 games. He called his last home game “a little emotional.”

“But we still have a game to play,” Sears added.

The Tigers have been plagued by erratic offense. They missed 15 of their first 16 shots in the second half as the Aggies took control. LSU is second-to-last in scoring in the SEC during conference play (67.0 points per game) and has averaged 61.8 during its losing streak.

“I feel like for the most part we got the shots we wanted to get,” Sears said. “We just couldn’t knock them down.”

–Field Level Media