BATON ROUGE, La., Jan. 17 (UPI) -- No. 24 Mississippi State rebounded from its first lost of the season Saturday with a 64-54 win over Louisiana State in an SEC matchup.
The Bulldogs relinquished a 19-point lead before pulling away down the stretch.
Mississippi State (14-1, 3-1 SEC West), which started the week with a last-second loss to fifth-ranked Kentucky, opened up an early 27-8 cushion. The Tigers (12-2, 2-1) scored 34 of the next 57 points to grab a 42-40 lead with 8:39 remaining, but the Bulldogs ended the contest with a 24-12 surge.
Freshman Gary Ervin led a balanced attack with 13 points, helping Mississippi State to its seventh win in the last 11 meetings with LSU.
Jaime Lloreda scored 13 points, but was plagued by foul trouble as the Tigers had their home winning streak snapped at 13 games.
