Mississippi State will be looking for not just one shot at the LSU men’s basketball team tonight at Humphrey Coliseum, but many.Open ones, preferably.The Bulldogs (16-7, 6-2) boast the Southeastern Conference’s second-best 3-point offense and will likely need it to avenge their Jan. 21 loss to LSU (19-4, 7-1). They have hit 39 3-point field goals in their last three games. In wins against Kentucky and Arkansas, they shot 51.9 and 48 percent from 3-point range, respectively.”Mississippi State [through] eight league games is 188 out of 433 from the field and 82 out of 200 from the 3, so we better guard them getting off the bus,” said LSU coach Trent Johnson. “They’ve got five guys that are averaging double figures … and they are the two-time defending western division champs.”Though they weren’t “guarding them getting off the bus,” the Tigers certainly brought their defense the last time around against the Bulldogs. LSU held Mississippi State to a dismal 25 percent from 3-point range, while junior forward Tasmin Mitchell and senior guard Marcus Thornton combined for 55 points in the 81-57 drubbing.”That was a big emphasis the first time we played them, to take out the 3-pointer,” Mitchell said. “They live and die by the 3-pointer, and so that’s our main goal. If they want to drive, we’ll just collapse and help. But we’ve got to take out the 3.”Mitchell broke out his own 3-point skills in Sunday’s 76-62 win against Alabama. He has only attempted 12 3-pointers from the power forward position this season, but he hit 2-of-2 deep 3-pointers against the Crimson Tide on the way to 16 points.”Since I got here I’ve been playing small forward. That requires me to shoot a lot of perimeter shots, a lot of 3s,” Mitchell said. “Me playing the four has kind of limited that, but I’ve still got it in my repertoire. I’m just trying to take high-percentage shots.”For the second-straight time, the matchup will say a lot about the SEC West pecking order. The Tigers took control of the West after their first win against Mississippi State, and a win tonight would give them a two-game lead in the division with seven games left to play. Mississippi State senior center Brian Johnson said he doesn’t need any extra incentive to focus on the 7 p.m. tipoff. The Bulldogs were on a three-game conference winning streak when they came to the PMAC, and they went home to Starkville with a 24-point loss.”When we went down there, they put it on us. We owe them one,” he said. “It’s an important game, not because it’s LSU but because it’s our next game.” A Bulldog win would create a tie in the SEC West standings and could force a three-way tie with Florida in the overall conference standings.”Coach lets us know where we stand, and we have in the locker room,” said LSU senior center Chris Johnson. “I don’t like looking at it. It gets into your head, and you seem to lose focus a little bit.”——Contact David Helman at [email protected]