Mississippi State
4-0
Clayton State
4-0
Bulldogs Now 4-0 With Win Against Clayton State
November 25, 2014 | Men's Basketball
MSU shot a season-low 38.0 percent from the field but rode a plus-13 advantage to the easy victory. MSU led by as many as 20 midway through the game's second half.
“Disappointed with how we approached this game,” MSU coach Rick Ray said. “I knew this would be a challenge to get the guys up for this game, since we were playing a Division II opponent. We talked about how you handle success and I thought we did a poor job of that.
“Offensively, we took some ill-advised shots and didn't really move the ball. We've got to mature as a team.”
Johnson was followed in the scoring column by Trivante Bloodman with 12 points and Gavin Ware with 11. Johnson had a team-high eight rebounds, while Ware had seven rebounds.
“We came out sluggish,” MSU senior guard Trivante Bloodman said. “In a lot of ways this game felt like a loss, but we really didn't play well. We didn't make shots the way we needed to. We had open shots that weren't bad shots and we were missing them.”
The Bulldogs actually did not hit a 3-point basket in the contest.
MSU built an early 11-4 lead before Clayton State rallied for an 11-11 tie. The Bulldogs took the lead for good at 15-13 on a basket by Johnson. It would eventually be a 12-0 run for MSU and a 29-15 lead with 2:56 left in the half.
Clayton State only had one field goal over the final 7:39 as MSU led 29-18 at halftime.
The Bulldogs stretched the lead to 16 early in the second half. The Lakers closed within nine points at 37-28. MSU followed with an 11-0 run to remove all doubt from the contest.
“We have to learn how to handle success,” Ray said. “This was our first game after a big win, and we didn't do a really good job of handling that.”
For the contest, the Bulldogs hit 19 of 50 shots from the field (38.0 percent), 0 of 7 shots from 3-point range (0.0 percent) and 21 of 27 shots from the foul line (77.8 percent). The Lakers hit 18 of 52 shots from the field (34.6 percent), 4 of 21 shots from 3-point range (19.0 percent) and 6 of 15 shots from the foul line (40.0 percent).
MSU held a 43-30 rebounding advantage. The Bulldogs had five assists and 11 turnovers, while the Lakers had five assists and 12 turnovers.
Clayton State received 14 points from Kelsey Terry and 13 points from JC Bonny.
MSU will play its first game away from home Friday night when the Corpus Christi Coastal Challenge resumes at Corpus Christi, Texas. MSU faces St. Louis in an 8:30 p.m. tip on the CBS Sports Network.
