Posts
Rodney Hood scored 16 points, Arnett Moultrie added 15 points and No. 15 Mississippi State escaped with a 66-64 victory over Utah State on Saturday.
Mississippi State (13-2) needed a defensive stop on its final possession to seal the win. Utah State's Danny Berger missed a 3-pointer as time expired that would have won the game.
Renardo Sidney added 13 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field. Moultrie had 10 rebounds for his eighth double-double of the season. MSU coach Rick Stansbury said both players had a sinus infection but fought through the sickness to post good numbers.
Utah State (8-6) had its four-game winning streak snapped. Preston Medlin led the Aggies with 15 points, Brockeith Pane added 11 points and Morgan Grim had 10.
Mississippi State's Dee Bost had four assists to become the school's career leader, passing Derrick Zimmerman's record of 514. But Bost struggled for most of the afternoon, shooting just 1 of 10 from the field.
Mississippi State was coming off Wednesday's 54-52 loss to No. 6 Baylor in Dallas - a much-anticipated, emotional game that came down to the final seconds. The Bulldogs looked less enthused in front of a half-full and only partly interested Humphrey Coliseum crowd on Saturday, and their performance in the first half reflected that malaise.
Utah State pulled ahead 15-6 midway through the first half as Mississippi State missed shots, made sloppy passes and blew defensive assignments, but the Bulldogs eventually responded with a 13-4 run that tied the game at 19. Sidney's 3-pointer with 27 seconds remaining in the half gave Mississippi State a 32-29 halftime lead.
Mississippi State could never completely shake Utah State in the second half and the Aggies pulled ahead 64-62 on Kyisean Reed's jumper with 2:42 left. But Reed missed two free throws on the next possession and Moultrie tied the game at 64 on a putback with 1:25 remaining.
Bost made two free throws with 34 seconds remaining, giving the Bulldogs their final 66-64 advantage.
No comments:
Post a Comment