Mississippi State
10-13, 3-8
Arkansas
12-12, 5-6
MSU Impressive In Blowout Of Arkansas
February 10, 2016 | Men's Basketball
STARKVILLE, Miss. – Mississippi State turned in its best performance of the year with a dominating, lopsided 78-46 win against Arkansas Tuesday night at Humphrey Coliseum.
MSU shot 52.9 percent from the field and enjoyed a plus-11 rebounding advantage. Arkansas was held to 16 total field goals and was only credited with three assists.
With the win, MSU improved to 10-13 overall and 3-8 in league play. Arkansas fell to 12-12 and 5-6. The teams split the regular-season series as Arkansas won 82-64 earlier this season at home. For MSU, it was their largest margin of victory in a conference game since a 90-53 win over Auburn in 2005.
"We clicked very well on defense and that allowed us to execute on offense,” MSU senior forward Gavin Ware said. “We were really happy at halftime, but we knew we couldn't let up. It was great to have everybody clicking on defense. That led to some very good offense.”
Ware and freshman Quinndary Weatherspoon each posted double-doubles. Ware had 21 points and 10 rebounds for his sixth double-double of the season, while Weatherspoon had 16 points and 10 rebounds for his second career double-double. Craig Sword had 10 points, while Travis Daniels pulled down 10 rebounds.
Senior Fred Thomas also scored eight points to become the 36th Bulldog with 1,000-career points.
In the first meeting, Arkansas thrived against a zone defense from MSU. Tuesday night, MSU played man and got much better results.
“The first time we played zone, and they had a couple of guys go off,” Weatherspoon said. “I think the man really helped us tonight. We tried to prevent them from getting open shots. That was the main thing.”
MSU took control of the game with an 11-0 run midway through the first half. That run erased an early 10-9 deficit for the Bulldogs. A 3-pointer by Fred Thomas, followed by back-to-back baskets by Sword and Malik Newman capped the run.
Arkansas continued to struggle from the field and MSU ran off another 11-0 run minutes later. A dunk by Sword ran the advantage to 31-12 with 6:34 left in the half.
A 3-pointer by Weatherspoon ran the lead to 22 points at 36-14.
Arkansas was held to 22.6 percent shooting in the first half and trailed 42-20 at the break.
“Obviously our best game of the year,” MSU coach Ben Howland said. “Proud of the effort on the defensive end. We did a great job of attacking their press. We were looking to score in transition and trying to be aggressive.
“Our entire team did a great job defensively. The effort was great.”
In the second half, the Bulldogs continued to thrive. Four straight points to open the second half ran the lead to 46-20. Later in the half, a 10-0 run allowed MSU to open a 35-point lead at 77-42.
For the contest, MSU hit 27 of 51 shots from the field (52.9 percent), 4 of 12 shots from 3-point range (33.3 percent) and 20 of 27 shots from the foul line (74.1 percent). Arkansas hit 16 of 72 shots from the field (22.2 percent), 1 of 10 shots from 3-point range (10.0 percent) and 13 of 20 shots from the foul line (65.0 percent).
MSU held a 50-39 rebounding advantage. The Bulldogs had 16 assists and 17 turnovers, while the Razorbacks had three assists and 10 turnovers.
Arkansas received 11 points from Jimmy Whitt.
MSU continues its three-game homestand when its faces Georgia Saturday night. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. from the Humphrey Coliseum with the game being shown nationally on the SEC Network.
