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No. 14 Mississippi State has suffered two close losses at home this season against top-tier Southeastern Conference teams.

But the league will provide the Bulldogs (16-5, 4-4) many more opportunities to win at home, such as Saturday afternoon against No. 20 Missouri in Starkville, Miss.

The Bulldogs will try to respond positively to their 88-84 home loss to No. 4 Alabama on Wednesday. As with their 95-90 defeat to then-No. 6 Kentucky on Jan. 11, they let a potential hallmark victory slip away.

“At this point, I would just say we are not a Top 10 team,” Mississippi State coach Chris Jans said. “I don’t like saying or admitting that because I like this team. I am confident and believe in this group. We have to stay the course.”

The Bulldogs already have a strong case for an NCAA Tournament bid, given their victories at Memphis and Vanderbilt and at home against Pitt and Ole Miss.

Now Mississippi State is in a stretch of facing four ranked teams in a span of five games. Missouri (16-4, 5-2) has two Top 10 victories this season, over Kansas at home and at Florida, in addition to wins over conference foes Vanderbilt and Ole Miss at home.

The challenges just keep coming in the SEC.

“We just have to stay the course,” Mississippi State guard Claudell Harris Jr. said. “Just keep our head in the right space and remember we are still that team who has beat ranked teams. SEC play is a gauntlet, and you will have your ups and downs, but at the end of the day, you just have to keep fighting. We will get back.”

The Bulldogs are led by guard Josh Hubbard, who averages 17.3 points and 3.0 assists per game. He scored 38 points against Alabama.

KeShawn Murphy (10.8), Harris (10.6) and Riley Kugel (10.2) also are averaging in double figures in scoring.

Missouri, meanwhile, rebounded from a 61-53 loss at Texas on Jan. 21 by beating then-No. 16 Ole Miss 83-75 at home last Saturday.

After bogging down offensively against the Longhorns, the Tigers re-established their ball movement vs. the Rebels. Missouri coach Dennis Gates wants his team attacking the basket in its half-court offense and earning free throws.

Against Ole Miss, the Tigers did a better job of passing the ball out to 3-point line after drawing double-teams in the lane.

“I felt like there was a lot of times where someone drove in there, they played off two feet, they drew two (defenders), kick, kick, and we were getting open looks when we were attacking the paint,” said Missouri guard Caleb Grill, who scored 22 against the Rebels.

Missouri has been a much-improved defensive team this season, which has helped them overcome stretches of cold shooting.

“Our mindset was to not let the defensive side of the ball be dictated on if we were making or missing shots or not,” said Tigers guard Tamar Bates, who scored 26 points against Ole Miss. “Because we came in with a mindset to get stops and play defense, and to stop the man in front of us, and to help the helper if somebody gets beat, that in turn gave us energy and gave the ball energy and just helped us make shots.”

Bates leads the balanced Missouri offense with an average of 13.5 points per game. Mark Mitchell (13.1), Grill (12.7) and Anthony Robinson II (10.2) also are averaging in double digits.

–Field Level Media