Bulldogs, Tigers badly needing win

AUBURN, Ala. - Mississippi State coach Rick Stansbury wants his team to be able to hold onto games at the end.<br> <br> Auburn&#39;s Jeff Lebo merely wants the Tigers to hold onto the ball after committing a season-high 25 turnovers in Wednesday night&#39;s loss at Mississippi.<br> <br> ``The winning and losing will take care of itself,&#39;&#39; said Lebo, whose Tigers have committed 44 turnovers in the past two games, both losses. ``I want to play better, especially valuing the basketball. We haven&#39;t done that for whatever reason the last two games.&#39;&#39;<br> <br> The Bulldogs (12-10, 3-6 Southeastern Conference) have lost four of five games. Their latest difficult defeat was Wednesday night when Alabama&#39;s Ronald Steele hit a layup with 6.7 seconds left for an 80-79 victory.<br> <br> Mississippi State&#39;s six SEC losses have come by an average 5.2 points.<br> <br> ``We didn&#39;t do things we had to do,&#39;&#39; Stansbury said. ``It hurts. They felt like we had a chance to win and we didn&#39;t finish it off.<br> <br> ``It&#39;s difficult. Four SEC games we&#39;ve had the chance to tie it or win (at the end) and neither went our way.&#39;&#39;<br> <br> The Tigers (14-11, 4-6) can surpass their highest league and overall win totals of the past three seasons with a victory, but have lost three of their last four games.<br> <br> They have also struggled in recent years against Mississippi State, despite winning the last two at Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum.<br> <br> The Bulldogs have won 10 of the past 12 meetings, outrebounding the Tigers in every game during that stretch.<br> <br> But those turnovers, many of them off careless mistakes, are what&#39;s bothering Lebo most these days.<br> <br> ``The Arkansas game was a one-possession game with two minutes to go in that game,&#39;&#39; he said of that 65-57 loss. ``We just had some crucial mistakes coming down the stretch that you can&#39;t have because we don&#39;t get shots.<br> <br> ``We are not a great shooting team anyway, but when you don&#39;t get an attempt it is hard to win basketball games and score points.&#39;&#39;

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