Mississippi State
(18-12, 8-7SEC)
Florida
(21-9, 8-7SEC)
Bulldogs Conclude Home Slate With Solid Win Over Gators, 80-71
March 04, 2009 | Men's Basketball
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STARKVILLE, Miss. - Mississippi State (18-12, 8-7 Southeastern Conference) made a strong case for postseason consideration Wednesday evening on Senior Night with an 80-71 victory against the visiting Florida Gators (21-9, 8-7) at Humphrey Coliseum.
A hot shooting night sparked the Bulldogs to the win, as sophomore Ravern Johnson hit 4-of-7 shots from downtown to finish with a team-high 15 points. Johnson now has 76 made treys on the season and stands third all-time at MSU in that category.
Defensive Player of the Year cadidate Jarvis Varnado finished with 13 points and eight rebounds while sophomore Kodi Augustus contributed nine points on 4-of-5 shooting and three rebounds off the bench.
Senior guard Walter Hodge led the game with 20 points for the Gators while sophomore big-man Alex Tyus put up 16 points and seven rebounds.
Both teams shot well during the first half, as the squads traded small leads throughout much of the stanza. State closed on a 10-3 run and held its largest lead of the game thus far at the break, 42-33.
While the intense scoring pace continued for MSU, the Gators cooled off and State put together several runs throughout the second half to slowly increase its advantage. An 18-5 MSU run capped by a Johnson trey gave the Bulldogs their largest lead of the game at 69-53 with 6:31 remaining.
Despite closing the gap to eight points with under a minute remaining,
“I am proud of our kids coming off a very tough loss,” MSU coach Rick Stansbury said. “I thought we lacked effort this past Saturday and that was not the case tonight. We played with emotion and great effort.”
MSU continues its drive toward postseason play on Saturday at Ole Miss (16-13, 7-8) in a battle for third place in the Western Division. Tipoff for the non-televised contest is set for 4 p.m.
