BATON ROUGE - LSU men's basketball never had a chance on Wednesday night as they fell behind by double-digits to Mississippi State less than four minutes into the game and trailed by 20 points or more for more than half of the contest.

LSU lost 80-66 to Mississippi State in a game that many thought the Tigers would win and now fall to 1-7 in SEC play.

The Tigers never led in the game, trailed largely because they could not make shots and failed to keep the Bulldogs from knocking down their attempts from behind the arc.

“Credit to Mississippi State, they were the aggressors. Two teams tonight that were desperate for a win, and they played with a sense of urgency that we were unable to match," LSU Head Coach Matt McMahon said after the loss.

LSU did have four players in double-figures scoring the ball and were led by Max Mackinnon with 15 points.

"I thought the physicality on the glass clearly was a huge difference maker. We struggled to finish plays around the rim and at the free-throw line that got them out in transition, and they really made us pay from behind the three-point line. You look at it coming in, I think they were last in our league and bottom 10 in the country in assist rate; that’s because they have terrific one-on-one players in (MSU Guard Josh) Hubbard and (MSU Guard Jayden) Epps. I looked at the stat sheet right off the jump, they had nine assists and zero turnovers to start the game. They were just spraying it out and knocking down open shots while we dug too deep of a hole to have a chance in the game. The three-point line continues to be an issue for us. We're struggling, from an efficiency standpoint, to make threes, and we're giving up way too many on the other end."

LSU (13-8) is now 1-7 in conference games since SEC play began for them in January, with their lone win coming against Missouri on Jan. 17.

The Tigers play at South Carolina on Jan. 31 at 5 p.m.