Mississippi State
(13-5, 3-0SEC)
Vanderbilt
(12-5, 1-2SEC)
State Keeps Rolling With 73-66 Home Victory Over Commodores; Stansbury Sets Mark
January 17, 2009 | Men's Basketball
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? Postgame Notes & Quotes (PDF)
Call it a complete win for the Bulldogs (13-5, 3-0 SEC).
State was led by standout sophomore shooting guard Ravern Johnson, who tied for game high with 18 points on a 4-of-6 effort from behind the arc. Freshman point guard Dee Bost, ranked third in the conference with 4.65 assists per game, handed out six and brought down 16 points. The final outstanding underclassman performance was provided by Phil Turner, who registered a career-high four steals and shot 4-of-7 from the field for 14 points.
For the Commodores, freshman forward Jeffrey Taylor led the team with 18 points on 8-of-14 shooting, while reigning co-SEC Freshman of the Year A.J. Ogilvy pulled down 14 points and six rebounds.
The win is the eighth-straight for
MSU, which plays at LSU at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, trailed the majority of the first half but pushed ahead late to hold a 32-27 advantage at the break.
After a tight first few minutes to open the second frame,
A clutch performance from the charity stripe in the final minute for MSU served as the deciding factor, sealing the victory. State ended the game hitting 18-of-22 free throws for 81.1 percent.
“Our team found a way to win again tonight,” Stansbury said. “I thought we showed some toughness in other areas tonight aside from rebounding and defense, and that was on the offensive end. If you look at the stats, Vanderbilt was leading the country in field goal percentage defense, and we shot the ball very well against them."
