STARKVILLE - Mississippi State dropped a close contest on the court with a 60-59 loss to Southern University on Sunday afternoon at Humphrey Coliseum.

"It's a tough style to play against," State head coach Chris Jans said. "Kudos to Coach [Kevin] Johnson, their staff and players. They play really hard, and we expect them to play hard, and they never gave up and they stuck around."

Freshman phenom Josh Hubbard had another impressive outing, tallying a team-high 14 points in the loss. The native of Madison, Mississippi, scored in double figures in his seventh consecutive outing. Veteran Cameron Matthews recorded 12 points and four rebounds while leading the team with four steals and a block.

Jimmy Bell Jr. protected the rim, doing a little bit of everything to limit Southern's attack. The 6-foot-10 graduate student pulled down 13 rebounds, marking the fifth time this season that he's recorded at least 10 boards.

The teams were locked in a back-and-forth battle up until the halftime buzzer sounded. State led 31-28 at the intermission.

The Bulldogs then pushed ahead late in the second half, leading by 12 points with six minutes left in the game thanks to a series of 3-pointers and strong drives to the basket. However, the Jaguars used a 15-2 run as the clock wound down to cut into the deficit and ultimately claim the victory on a go-ahead layup.

"In the second half, they mixed it up, especially the last four or five minutes," Jans said. "We weren't as aggressive - looking back - as we probably should have been against the press and trying to score and needing to get them out of it. We were almost satisfied to break it."

The Dawgs will look to bounce back over the final few games of non-conference play before SEC competition starts in just a couple of weeks.

"This is going to stay with us all year long, there's no way around it," Jans said. "We're going to have to figure out how we move forward as a group, and it's going to be hard. It's going to be tough. It's going to challenge the fabric of the program."

MSU will travel to Atlanta, Georgia, on Saturday to face Tulane in the Holiday Hoopsgiving tournament. Tip-off is set for 10:30 a.m. on SEC Network.