Bulldogs improve to 3-0 with double-digit victory
It wasn’t the most dominant performance for Mississippi State on Wednesday night, but the Bulldogs still put together a double-digit victory to improve to 3-0.
The Bulldogs out-hustled Detroit Mercy 77-64 in front of a solid crowd inside of Humphrey Coliseum on Wednesday night.
MSU Head Coach Ben Howland praised his team for the hard-fought win over the visiting Titans and former Bulldog Prince Oduro.
“That was a good win over a team with a bunch of veteran guys and smart players who can really spread the floor out,” Howland said. “Prince had a great game, he went seven-for-seven from the field with five offensive rebounds. That’s way too many offensive rebounds – we gave up 12 and only got eight ourselves, so that’s a disappointment. I thought we did a really good job defensively as a team, especially on (Antoine) Davis, who’s a terrific player who really forces to be out on them away from the hook, because he’s such a good 3-point shooter.”
It was a night that seemed to go back and forth between the Bulldogs and the Titans.
When looking back on Wednesday night’s game, Cameron Matthews didn’t feel that the defense wasn’t playing over par, but that Detroit Mercy was simply making shots that were very hard to defend.
“I felt like we were playing really good defense,” Matthews said. “It was just more of them taking some tough shots and making those tough shots. I didn’t feel like we did anything particularly wrong on defense. They were just making those tough shots and there really wasn’t much we could do about that.”
The MSU bench put together 14 points in the win over Detroit Mercy. Matthews expressed how much of a relief it is knowing that he can play as hard as he wants knowing that there are good players coming off the bench for them.
“It’s a really big relief just knowing that we got guys with the same abilities as everyone else,” Matthews said. “There won’t be a drop in momentum, and we’ll keep the tempo the same.”
When it comes to confidence in State’s backcourt group and its depth, Shakeel Moore has plenty of it.
“We’re some hard work
ers and I feel like watching guys like Iverson (Molinar) and how hard they work really inspire me,” Moore said. “Seeing how he goes after it in practice and games, it inspires the rest of us. Cameron Carter is one guy who is a fearless freshman. He kind of reminds me of myself from last year when I played and wouldn’t back down from anything, and that’s what I feel like with him. He’s going to come at you and play deep. With Rocket (Watts), he’s starting to get his feel back. He got a little time in his first game. I feel like as time goes, our chemistry is going to be outstanding, and our confidence is going to keep building up.”
Watts, a Michigan State transfer. made his Bulldog debut on Wednesday night, recording only two points and one assist during 8 minutes in the first half.
As Watts continues to get back to full health, Howland is looking to getting him in for more minutes when MSU plays Morehead State on Sunday.
“He had a couple turnovers on plays where he made great passes, but he didn’t jump stop and he took charges on both those possessions that would’ve been buckets,” Howland said. “He’s going to be fine, so I’m looking forward to him getting more minutes on Sunday.”
Molinar and Iverson led the Bulldogs in scoring with 19 points each with D.J. Jeffries following them with 10 and Garrison Brooks with eight. The Bulldogs shot 59.2% from the field, and outscored the Titans 16-2 in fast break points.
Tip off time for Sunday’s game at Humphrey Coliseum is at 2 p.m.
The Starkville Quarterback Club will have its weekly meeting tonight at the Starkville Country Club and 247 sports reporter Paul Jones will be the guest speaker.
The social hour begins at 6 p.m. followed by the dinner at 6:30 p.m. and the program at 7 p.m. This week’s menu is pulled pork, baked beans, coleslaw, Texas toast and dessert.
Mississippi State special teams coordinator and outside linebackers coach Matt Brock will give the scouting report on Tennessee State, which is this Saturday’s opponent for the Bulldogs at Davis Wade Stadium. The game will kick off at 11 a.m. and will only be available for viewing through the SEC Network+ and ESPN+ online streaming service.
Shipley Do-nuts is the sponsor for this week’s speaker. As a reminder to members, this is the last week to purchase Raffle Tickets and next week’s meeting will be held on Tuesday next week due to the Egg Bowl being on Thanksgiving Night. That meeting will be “date night,” so let the registration table tonight know if you plan to bring a date and the cost is $10.