No. 17 Men’s Hoops Fends Off Wright State, 67-63

Saturday, December 22

Jackson, Miss. (Mississippi Coliseum)

6:00 PM

Mississippi State

11-1

Wright State

6-7

Wright State

Mississippi State

Photo by: Keith Warren

No. 17 Men’s Hoops Fends Off Wright State, 67-63

December 22, 2018 | Men's Basketball

Box Score Highlights Press Conference Box Score (PDF)Quotes (PDF)

by Caleb Garner, Graduate Assistant/Communications

JACKSON – Timely defensive stops and clutch free-throw shooting inside the final 35 seconds helped No. 17 Mississippi State go into its holiday break with a 67-63 victory over Wright State on Saturday at Mississippi Coliseum.

The Bulldogs (11-1) collected their SEC-best eighth straight win and improved to 4-0 under Ben Howland in the capital city. Overall, Mississippi State has won 16 of its last 17 decisions in Jackson dating back to the 1985-86 season. MSU led for 37:11 of the contest with the Raiders (6-7) only advantages coming in the opening minutes.

Aric Holman filled the box score with 12 points, nine rebounds, four blocks and matched a career-high four steals. He connected on 5-of-10 shooting and nearly secured his third double-double of the season. Holman has dialed up double figures in three of his last four outings.

Quinndary Weatherspoon netted nine of his team-leading 14 points during the second half. He grabbed six rebounds and handed out two assists in his final game at the "Big House," where he won three state championships as a high school player.

Lamar Peters and Tyson Carter factored into the scoring with 11 and 10 points, respectively. Peters accounted for six assists and three assists. The six dimes moved him into the program's top 10 assists list where he eclipsed Rich Knarr (1973-74-75-76).

Nick Weatherspoon worked his way to nine points and four rebounds, while Reggie Perry tacked on three points and three rebounds during his third start of the season.

Mississippi State's bench outscored the Raiders by an 18-10 margin. In addition to Carter, Robert Woodard II added six points on 3-of-5 from the floor to go along with three rebounds and a block. KeyShawn Feazell tallied two points and three rebounds.

The Bulldogs once again held a healthy rebounding edge for the seventh straight outings. The Bulldogs claimed a 34-23 advantage which marked the fifth time that the Maroon and White finished with a plus 10 rebounding margin.

FROM THE BENCH WITH COACH HOWLAND
"A very difficult game tonight, it was tough for us. We prepared the last two days for (Loudon) Love, their big kid who is 6-9 and 280 [pounds], to play in this game. He's sitting on the bench because he sprained his ankle apparently during their shootaround. They play way differently without him. They really spread the floor and slipped everything. We had the 11-point lead at halftime. That's a very well-coached team that was in the NCAA Tournament a year ago. They're picked to win their conference going into the season … That's why we wanted to play them because we're trying to play good teams that help our NET ranking, but you've got to win to really help it."

"I'm so thankful that we won this game. I thought that Robert Woodard (II) gave us really good minutes … I thought that Aric (Holman) did a good job on the boards. He blocked four shots tonight, had four steals and had a good game. This game right here was a tough game. Our two seniors really did a good job leading us. Again, it's different playing up here. It's not our home court. We try to do this because we want to do it for our fans in Jackson this time of year. I appreciate everybody that came out to the game today to support us."

MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
The Bulldogs turned an early 5-2 deficit in the game's opening minutes into a 13-5 lead with 13:06 remaining. The 11-0 spurt was ignited by an Aric Holman left-handed slam dunk followed by a Reggie Perry layup. Quinndary Weatherspoon knocked down a three-pointer, and KeyShawn Feazell capped the flurry with a putback in the lane.

Mississippi State would stretch the advantage to 26-13 at the 7:06 mark as Lamar Peters found Holman for a trey. Holman finished the opening 20 minutes with nine points and seven rebounds as the Bulldogs shot 50 percent en route to a 35-24 lead into the locker room.

MSU grabbed its largest lead at 38-24 on a Nick Weatherspoon three-pointer before Wright State caught fire from three-point territory. The Raiders charged back with 18 of the next 23 points to slice the deficit down to 43-42 with 12:55 remaining.

The Bulldogs regained the momentum on a Quinndary Weatherspoon stepback jumper on the left baseline to spark 10 consecutive points. Holman and Peters canned back-to-back triples to put the Maroon and White back on top at 53-42 with 10:14 on the clock.

Wright State kept battling and answered back with an 11-2 run to knot the score at 55-55 with 5:56 left, but MSU kept its resolve. After Peters split a pair of free throws, he drove and found a cutting Nick Weatherspoon on the baseline for a layup to make it 58-55 at the 4:51 mark.

The two teams would trade buckets over the next couple of minutes, but it was Tyson Carter's late shot clock 8-foot floater in the lane that gave the Bulldogs a 62-59 advantage at the 2:02 mark.

Mississippi State would force the Raiders to misfire on five of their last six shot attempts. Conversely, the Bulldogs would rattle home 5-of-6 at the free throw line inside the final 35 seconds to tuck away the four point win.

For the contest, the Bulldogs hit 25-of-51 shots from the field (49.0 percent), 7-of-21 shots from three-point range (33.3 percent) and 10-of-15 shots from the foul line (66.7 percent).

Wright State countered with 23-of-52 shots from the field (44.2 percent), 11-of-28 shots from three-point range (39.3 percent) and 6-of-8 shots from the foul line (75.0 percent).

The Bulldogs had 11 assists and 12 turnovers, while the Raiders had 13 assists and 12 turnovers.

Wright State received 19 points from Bill Wampler in addition to 11 points apiece from Parker Ernsthausen and Mark Hughes.

UP NEXT
Mississippi State returns from the holiday break and will take on BYU to wrap its non-conference slate next Saturday. The Cougars are fifth straight postseason opponent from last season for MSU. Tip time is on-tap for 11 a.m. CT from Humphrey Coliseum. The game will be televised by ESPNU and available online through the WatchESPN app.

Visit www.HailState.com for the latest news and information on the men's basketball program. Fans also can follow the program on its social media outlets by searching 'HailStateMBK' on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.