Mississippi State
(17-7, 5-4SEC)
Ole Miss
(17-7, 5-5SEC)
| Team | 1 | 2 | F |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ole Miss | 29 | 34 | 63 |
| Mississippi State | 33 | 38 | 71 |
State Completes Season Sweep Of Rebels With 71-63 Win
February 11, 2010 | Men's Basketball
• Official Statistics
• Official Statistics (PDF)
• Postgame Notes & Quotes (PDF)
• FREE M2M VIDEO: Coach Stansbury's Postgame Press Conference
• FREE M2M VIDEO: Postgame Player Interviews
STARKVILLE - Consider it a sweep.
For the fourth time in the past seven years, the Mississippi State Bulldogs (17-7, 5-4 SEC) swept the Ole Miss Rebels (17-7, 5-5) thanks to a 71-63 victory on Thursday in front of a season-high 9,401 fans at Humphrey Coliseum.
Junior Ravern Johnson returned to form by leading all scorers with 18 points on a 4-of-7 performance from long-range.
All-SEC standout Jarvis Varnado recorded his fourth-straight double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds to give him 14 on the season and 29 for his career. He also handed out four assists, tying his career-high.
Senior Barry Stewart, starting a perfect 4-of-4 from the field, finished with 12 points while sophomore Dee Bost scored 11 to round out MSU players in double digits.
Junior guard Eniel Polynice led the Rebels with 14 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists. Point guard Chris Warren, UM's leading scorer, was held to 1-of-9 shooting and totaled just 3 points.
Defense wins championships, and it also beats Ole Miss. While the Rebels entered the contest with the second-best offense in the SEC, State ranks atop the league and fourth-best nationally defensively.
The results favored the Bulldogs.
Mississippi State held UM to just 63 points, its lowest total of the season. Ole Miss hit 27 of its 71 shots for 38.0 percent, its third-worst effort of the season.
The Bulldogs bolted out of the gate, scoring two quick 3s and blocking two shots. Ole Miss then called a quick timeout to regroup before orchestrating a 9-0 run to claim a 13-11 lead at the 12:13 mark. MSU responded with a 13-2 stretch midway through the half to carry a hotly-contested 33-29 lead into halftime.
In the half's first five minutes, Johnson scored eight points to push MSU to an 11-2 run. Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy chose to shrug off his foul problems and tightened his defense on State's guards, which quickly led to three-straight buckets off turnovers for Ole Miss. Those turnovers helped UM to a 10-2 run to pull the score to a 60-55 Bulldog advantage with 5:31 remaining.
That's as close as the Rebels would get. After a few traded buckets, a thunderous fastbreak dunk from Varnado with 34 seconds left iced the game for Mississippi State.
"I am awfully proud of our team, not just for winning the game but for how we won it," MSU coach Rick Stansbury said. "Four of our last five have been on the road and we lost all four in a tough way. We came back home and had to play a team that just came back from 20 points down at the half in their last game. They're someone we are fighting with in this league and even our rival."
The win marks the first three-game winning streak for MSU over its in-state rival since grabbing eight-straight from 2002-05.
Mississippi State looks at a quick turnaround, hosting the Auburn Tigers (12-12, 3-6) Saturday evening. The contest is set for a 6 p.m. tipoff and will be televised by FSN.
