Smith’s double-double helps Bulldogs win
NASSAU, Bahamas — Tolu Smith scored 22 points with 11 rebounds and Iverson Molinar scored 15 and Mississippi State beat Richmond 82-71 in overtime on Saturday in the consolation game of the Bahamas Championship.
“Tolu was good on both ends on the floor,” MSU head coach Ben Howland said of Smith. “He was not himself the other night, but was much better today.”
Cameron Matthews started the extra session with a layup and Molinar added a 3-pointer with 3:53 left in the extra session and the Bulldogs (5-1) led the rest of the way.
Tyler Burton made two foul shots with nine seconds left in regulation to pull Richmond into a tie at 66 and Mississippi State failed to get off a shot.
Smith missed just one of 11 shot attempts, D.J. Jeffries scored 13 and Garrett Brooks 11 for Mississippi State. The Bulldogs out-rebounded Richmond 44-20.
MSU responded in a positive manner after suffering its first loss of the season Thursday night against Louisville 72-58.
“Our guys really responded after the humiliating defeat against Louisville the other night,” Howland said. “I was really proud of our guys. We really showed up on the glass today. It was an important win against a good team.”
Burton finished with 23 points for Richmond (3-4), Jacob Gilyard 17, Grant Golden 13 and Dji Bailey 10 off the bench.
Women
Michigan 64, MSU 48
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The Bulldogs fell for the first time on Saturday after dropping a decision to Michigan to close out the Daytona Beach Invitational.
Jerkaila Jordan led
MSU with 18 points and eight rebounds while adding a game-high three blocked shots. Rickea Jackson added 13 points for the afternoon with seven rebounds and two blocked shots while Anastasia Hayes added nine points and four rebounds of her own. As a team, the Bulldogs shot 32% from the field.
“They have a great idea of how they want to play and how they want to work the possessions,” MSU interim head coach Doug Novak said about Michigan. “I thought we battled and hung in there for a while, and then they exposed some of our deficiencies. We couldn’t stretch them on the offensive side. We stopped making some cuts and they didn’t have to guard us. If we stay close together, it’s in Michigan’s favor, and we did one too many times. I thought we gave them a scare for a while and I thought we competed really well on the defensive end, especially defending the post there for about as long as we could.”
The game was a backand-forth affair for the first 20 minutes in Daytona before Michigan used a 10-4 run to start the third quarter to break the game open. State refused to quit, cutting the Michigan lead down to five at one point in the fourth quarter with an 8-0 run fueled by four points from Jackson, along with a layup each from Denae Carter and Jordan. However, the Wolverines ultimately pulled away in the final frame by scoring the final eight points of the game and holding the Bulldogs scoreless over the final 3:41 of regulation.
Mississippi State recorded six blocks, eight steals and force 14 turnovers. These numbers were all better than Michigan’s output in those categories, but the rebounding margin of +14 in the Wolverines’ favor proved to be too much to overcome for State.
The Bulldogs will be back inside the Humphrey Coliseum on Wednesday at 6 p.m. when they host Mcneese State.