No. 24 Men's Hoops Stymies Vanderbilt, 71-55

Saturday, January 19

Nashville, Tenn.

7:30 PM

Mississippi State

14-3 (2-2SEC)

Vanderbilt

9-8 (0-5SEC)

Mississippi State

Vanderbilt

No. 24 Men's Hoops Stymies Vanderbilt, 71-55

January 19, 2019 | Men's Basketball

Box Score Highlights Press Conference Box Score (PDF)

by Caleb Garner, Graduate Assistant/Communications

NASHVILLE, Tennessee – It's often said that a key to winning on the road is to have your defense travel, and No. 24 Mississippi State proved that adage to be true as the Bulldogs limited Vanderbilt to 37 percent shooting en route to a 71-55 victory over the Commodores on Saturday night at Memorial Gymnasium.

Mississippi State (14-3, 2-2 SEC) set the tone by forcing the Commodores (9-8, 0-5 SEC) into 14 turnovers, and Vanderbilt started the game on a 4-of-22 shooting clip.

Conversely, the Bulldogs committed only nine turnovers and improved to 28-1 when holding the opposition to 60 points or less under fourth-year coach Ben Howland. The 55 points also were the fewest allowed by MSU in a SEC road game during the Howland era.

The 16-point win was Mississippi State's second-largest margin of victory in a SEC road game under Howland. The Bulldogs also ended a four-game losing streak to Vanderbilt in Nashville which dated back to the 2011-12 season.

Quinndary Weatherspoon pumped in a solid all-around effort with 17 points, eight rebounds and four assists. He connected on 6-of-12 from the floor and 5-of-7 on free throws. The 17 points allowed Weatherspoon to pass Ray White (1976-77-78-79) for fifth place on MSU's all-time scoring list.

Aric Holman nearly tucked away a double-double as he came away with 10 points and hauled down a team-leading nine rebounds.

Mississippi State's legacy bench of Tyson Carter, Reggie Perry and Robert Woodard II combined for 25 points and 15 rebounds. Carter headed the group with 10 points, and the Bulldogs moved to 22-2 when Carter notches double figures over the last two seasons. Woodard II garnered a career-best nine points coupled with four rebounds and two assists, while Perry secured six points, eight rebounds and a block.

Lamar Peters tacked on seven points and a pair of assists which moved him past Detrick White (1998-99) for the No. 9 spot in program history. Nick Weatherspoon and Abdul Ado registered six and four points, respectively.

Mississippi State worked its way to a 40-30 rebounding advantage and held the Commodores without an offensive rebound during the second half.

FROM THE BENCH WITH COACH HOWLAND
"Obviously, we are elated about the win. A road win is so hard to do. To win in this building, which has not been easy for Mississippi State over the years, was huge. I thought our guys played the best defense we played since the Cincinnati game at home back over a month ago. We really played good defensively. We got a few more fouls because we were playing really aggressively, but we also got 18 points off of their turnovers, which was huge. I'm really happy for our team. This league is just so tough – it's a monster. Every game is incredibly difficult."

"The best thing statistically that we did is that they did not get an offensive rebound in the second half. They had zero offensive rebounds, which means we did a better job blocking out and really going to the ball. We didn't turn over [the ball] as much as we had been turning over [the ball this season]. We only had nine turnovers tonight, which was huge for us. I thought we did a good job being patient offensively when we didn't have something in transition."

MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
The Bulldogs started strong on both ends on the floor and scored the game's first 10 points over the opening 3:33 of the contest.

Aric Holman dialed up a corner three from the left baseline courtesy of Lamar Peters to open the scoring. Then, Quinndary Weatherspoon and Peters provided driving layup. Peters capped the flurry with a deep trey on the right wing to make it 10-0 with 16:27 remaining.

Mississippi State's defense kept the clamps down on the Commodores and forced Vanderbilt to misfire on 18 of its first 22 shot attempts. The Bulldogs grabbed their largest lead at 25-10 with 6:25 left following a trio of layups from Peters, Reggie Perry and Quinndary Weatherspoon.

The Commodores responded with 13 of the next 17 points to pull within 29-23 at the 1:47 mark. However, Mississippi State answered with a couple of hustle plays as a Robert Woodard II offensive rebound turned into a Holman dunk, and Nick Weatherspoon went coast-to-coast for a layup to bring the score to 35-23 with 39 seconds on the clock.

The Bulldogs carried a 35-27 lead into halftime after Peters had his buzzer-beating three-pointer waved off following a replay review.

Things stayed fairly tight through the early stages of the second half with the Commodores eventually finding some offensive rhythm.

However, the Bulldogs kept plugging away. A 7-0 spurt sparked by Perry and Woodard II extended the Maroon and White's 42-34 lead to 49-34 at the 11:50 mark. Woodard II provided a key play when he drove to the cup and converted on an old-fashioned three-point play.

Mississippi State continued to keep its foot on the gas pedal and took its largest lead at 65-43 with 6:03 to go. Holman rocked the rim with a dunk after a Woodard II offensive rebound, and Holman dialed up a three-pointer.

For the contest, the Bulldogs hit 27-of-59 shots from the field (45.8 percent), 5-of-19 shots from 3-point range (26.3 percent) and 12-of-14 shots from the foul line (85.7 percent). The Commodores hit 18-of-49 shots from the field (36.7 percent), 5-of-19 shots from 3-point range (26.3 percent) and 14-of-26 shots from the foul line (58.3 percent).

Mississippi State had 13 assists and nine turnovers, while the Commodores had six assists and 14 turnovers.

Vanderbilt received 13 points and six rebounds from Saben Lee and 11 points from Aaron Nesmith.

UP NEXT
The Bulldogs are slated to face a pair of ranked opponents next week beginning with No. 12 Kentucky on Tuesday. Tip time is on-tap for 6 p.m. CT from Rupp Arena. The game will be televised by ESPN and available online through the WatchESPN platform. Karl Ravech, Dick Vitale and Laura Rutledge will serve as the announcing team.

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.