Mississippi State
6-2
Nicholls State
4-4
Bulldogs Down Nicholls State, 67-58
December 13, 2010 | Men's Basketball
STARKVILLE, Miss. - Mississippi State scored the final 10 points of the first half Monday night. The Basketball Bulldogs made that spurt stand up for a 67-58 win over Nicholls State in a men's basketball game played in the Humphrey Coliseum.
Brian Bryant sparked the Bulldogs with a season-high 22 points. Bryant also had seven rebounds, two assists and two steals in 37 minutes of play. Ravern Johnson again topped the Bulldog scoring ledger with 23 points, including a 5-for-9 night from 3-point range.
“Brian made some really big strides tonight,” MSU head coach Rick Stansbury said. “The main thing is he played with confidence. He was able to make some plays tonight and did a good job of keeping other players involved in the offensive action.”
The Bulldogs improved to 6-2, while winning the second of three games in a four-game, four-day stretch. The season-opening nine-game homestand closes with a regionally televised game against Alabama State Tuesday. That contest tips at 7 p.m. and will be shown regionally by Comcast Sports Southeast.
Nicholls, who has already defeated Southeastern Conference foe LSU this season, fell to 4-4.
Nursing only a 16-15 lead, the Bulldogs used a 10-4 run to open up a 26-19 advantage with 6:04 left before halftime. The Colonels then found a few holes in the Bulldogs' zone defense for an 8-0 run.
A jumper by Fred Hunter gave the Colonels their last lead, at 27-26 with 2:49 left before halftime.
The Bulldogs roared right back with the half-ending 10-0 run. Johnson sparked that run with back-to-back 3-point baskets. A monster dunk by Kodi Augustus ran the opening half out.
“Ravern hit a couple of really big shots,” Stansbury said, “We are used to that with him. We played zone the whole night to help save some legs during this stretch of games. The 10-0 run right before the half was really big and gave us a lot of momentum.”
A tip-in by Bryant quickly ran the Maroon and White advantage to 41-28 with 17:21 left to play.
The Colonels did score six straight points to close within 47-41. However, the guests would get no closer the remainder of the way.
The Bulldogs shot 52 percent from the floor in the game's final half. A dunk by Bryant and jumper by Augutus reestablished a double-digit lead and moved the Bulldogs back out of danger.
For the contest, the Bulldogs hit 24 of 47 shots from the field (51.1 percent), 8 of 20 shots from 3-point range (40.0 percent) and 11 of 14 shots from the foul line (78.6 percent). The Colonels hit 22 of 52 shots from the field (42.3 percent), 5 of 23 shots from 3-point range (21.7 percent) and 9 of 11 shots from the foul line (81.8 percent).
MSU held a 33-24 rebounding advantage. The Bulldogs had 12 assists and 11 turnovers, while the Colonels had eight assists and six turnovers.
Anatoly Bose paced Nicholls with 17 points - close to 10 points below his average. Ben Martin added 12 points, while Hunter scored 11 points and Dantrell Thomas scored 10 points.
