MSU holds off Arkansas
Nearly a week after Mississippi State put together one of its most impressive performances of the year in a win over Alabama, the Bulldogs duplicated the strong showing.
State came out and dominated the first half of action to build one of its biggest leads in an Southeastern Conference game of the year and held off a late try at a rally by Arkansas. The all-important 87-73 win over the Razorbacks sent the Bulldogs out a winner in the final home game at Humphrey Coliseum this season.
MSU won for the fifth time in the last six games and got to its 20th victory of the season. At 9-6 in the league, and having been projected inside the NCAA Tournament, the team might have locked in a bid for the first time since 2018-19.
“Getting to the tournament is a dream of all of ours and that's what we really want,” Bulldog Anastasia Hayes said. “We worked really hard after the (Missouri) loss and it hurts us. Getting back in the dream and learning the things that we did during those losses has helped us.”
MSU shot a strong 49% from the floor hitting 28of-57 and made 10-of-23 3-pointers while holding Arkansas to 35% from the field and 8-of-32 from long range. The Razorbacks were 19-of31 from the free-throw line while State shot well from the charity stripe hitting 21of-39.
The game played out very similarly to the Alabama game last Sunday. The Bulldogs built a big lead in the first half and coasted to the win despite having some lapses late in the game. It was thanks to the offensive flow of the game that MSU was able to grab such a
ULM.
Outfielder Colton Ledbetter believes if MSU can play much like it did in that game, then it should be a good weekend against the Sun Devils.
“(We just need to) play our game and play as a unit like we did (Wednesday night),” Ledbetter said. “(It's about) filling up the zone like we did (Wednesday) and do what we do as an offense.”
The Bulldogs sport a .337 team batting average and Bryce Chance leads the way individually with a 474. Chance was just selected Southeastern Conference Cofreshman of the Week.
Lemonis and MSU pitching coach Scott Foxhall have tweaked the weekend rotation with a new starter for game two.
Cade Smith will be the Friday starter for the second-straight weekend, while Graham Yntema gets the nod in the second game and Landon Gartman will be on the mound to begin Sunday's game like he was for the VMI final.