Tolu Smith's Career Day Vaults Men's Hoops Past Florida, 72-69

Saturday, January 16

Starkville

3:00 PM

Mississippi State

9-5,4-2SEC

Florida

6-4,3-3SEC

Florida

Mississippi St.

Photo by: Matt Bush-USA TODAY Sports

Tolu Smith's Career Day Vaults Men's Hoops Past Florida, 72-69

January 16, 2021 | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)Postgame Quotes (PDF)VIDEO: Student-Athletes Presser VIDEO: Coach Howland Presser Photo Gallery

by Josie Hutton, Student Assistant/Communications

STARKVILLE – Tolu Smith piled up career-highs with 27 points, 14 rebounds and tied a career-best three blocks to deliver the Mississippi State men's basketball team to a 72-69 win over Florida on Saturday at Humphrey Coliseum.

Smith collected his SEC-leading fifth double-double of the season and the first 20-10 performance of his career. He scorched the nets going 11-of-13 from the floor.

Smith and Abdul Ado combined for 38 points on a collective 16-of-18 shooting effort. The duo also teamed to haul down 23 rebounds to fuel the Bulldogs (9-5, 4-2 SEC) to a 47-26 rebounding edge and a 52-30 rout in paint points.

Ado compiled 11 points on a flawless 5-for-5 shooting and equaled his season's best with nine rebounds. He also secured three blocks and a steal.

Mississippi State's win gave the program its first 4-2 SEC start since the 2011-12 season and its sixth start of 4-2 or better through six SEC games during the 2000s.

The Bulldogs secured their third consecutive victory over Florida (6-4, 3-3 SEC) and tucked away their second top 50 NCAA NET victory on the season. The last time State amassed a three-game winning streak over the Gators was during the 1981-82 and 1982-83 seasons.

Mississippi State's backcourt also did their part as Iverson Molinar tallied 13 points, six rebounds and three assists to extend his streak to 11 straight games in double figures to start the season. The Bulldogs have racked up a 13-3 record when Molinar scores 10-plus points in his career.

D.J. Stewart Jr. posted 11 points, four rebounds, three assists and two steals. He has notched 10-plus points in 13 of MSU's 14 games on the season, and the Bulldogs moved to 20-7 when Stewart Jr. reaches 10 or more points.

In total, the quartet amassed 62 of the team's 72 points. Mississippi State has won seven of its eight games when four players have pumped in double digit points this season.
Deivon Smith was the Bulldogs top performer off the bench with five points, six rebounds, four assists and a steal. Jalen Johnson and Cameron Matthews rounded out scoring as Johnson added three points, two assists and two steals, alongside Matthews' two points and four rebounds.

For the contest, Mississippi State connected on 29-of-60 from the field (48.3 percent), 1-of-8 on its attempts from three-point territory (12.5 percent) and 13-of-24 from the free-throw line (54.2 percent).

The +21 rebounding margin for the Bulldogs was the highest versus a SEC opponent under sixth-year coach Ben Howland. It marked the sixth time in 2020-21 that State has outrebounded its opponent by over 10 rebounds.

The Gators countered with a 25-of-61 shooting performance from the field (41.0 percent), 5-of-19 from beyond the three-point arc (26.3 percent) and 14-of-16 at the charity stripe (87.5 percent).

Florida had at trio of players register double figures, headed by Tyree Appleby's 20 points. He sank 11 of the team's 14 attempts at the foul line. Colin Castleton came away with 16 points, seven rebounds and six blocks, followed by Tre Mann's 14 points, six assists and three steals.

FROM THE BENCH – HEAD COACH BEN HOWLAND
"He really played his best game of his young career here at Mississippi State. I'm just so happy for him and so proud of him. I thought his teammates did a tremendous job of getting the ball to start the second half. We pushed to start the second half going right to him multiple times in a row. I think we scored three times in a row, if I'm not mistaken, which is really huge for us. It got us off to a great start to start the second half."

"When I look at Tolu and Abdul [Ado] combined, I thought Abdul was absolutely phenomenal today … Combined with him and Tolu, they were 16-18 from the field with 23 rebounds, 38 points and six blocks. That's a real phenomenal night for those two bigs. I just absolutely loved it."

"We just have to keep learning from what's going on, what's working well for us and also what we've got to improve at. Obviously, the foul shooting is not where we want it at 54 percent. We've got to be able to knock down those free throws down the stretch when we're getting fouled."

"Give Florida credit, they could've folded in the last two minutes. They had a chance to tie the game with the last shot … [Colin] Castleton now has 23 blocks on the year, and 13 of them are in the last two games. He's really figured something out because now he's like a human fly swatter. It especially affected us in the first half, but I like that Tolu learned from it and finished strong inside. He did some great things for us around the basket, taking his time in there and shooting 11-of-13 from the field is pretty impressive."

FROM THE LOCKER ROOM – TOLU SMITH
"I was playing with confidence. I was playing as hard as I could. Coach [Howland] emphasized playing as hard as we can to get this win. This [game] was a must win [in my opinion]. I want to thank my coaches and my teammates for giving me the ball. I just appreciate them."

FROM THE LOCKER ROOM – ABDUL ADO
"After the A&M loss, we came back to the locker room, and you could see everybody's face. Everybody had a reaction as to 'we were not supposed to lose to these guys'. We were supposed to defend our home. We need every win we can get at home. We took it as motivation. We talked as a group about how we have to close out games and about how we have to handle the ball. We can't let other teams decide what we do on the floor on offense and defense no matter how aggressive they play."

MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
During an opening half that featured five ties and six lead changes, Florida took a 17-14 lead on a Tre Mann jumper with 10:21 remaining.

The Bulldogs turned the tables behind eight consecutive points to snatch a 22-17 advantage at the 5:37 mark. Cameron Matthews started the flurry with an offensive rebound and putback layup.

Then, D.J. Stewart Jr. drained a right baseline jumper, followed by an Iverson Molinar runner late shot clock. Abdul Ado added another layup courtesy of an offensive rebound to give the five-point edge.

The Bulldogs received buckets from Molinar and Jalen Johnson inside the last 90 seconds to take a 32-29 spread into the locker room.

Mississippi State came out of the locker room with a concerted effort to get the ball inside the paint. Tolu Smith and Abdul Ado ripped off four of the opening six baskets of the second half for the Bulldogs. Ado slammed home a one-hand dunk over UF's Osayi Osifo to bring the tally to 42-31 with 17:25 left.

The Gators pulled back to within 56-52 after a Colin Castleton layup at the 8:00 mark.

State regrouped behind a Molinar coast-to-coast transition layup, a Tolu Smith layup from Deivon Smith and a Deivon Smith up-and-under to stretch the scoreboard back to 67-58 with 1:59 remaining.

Florida had one last finishing kick as State went 4-of-8 at the foul line down the stretch. The Gators had an opportunity to tie during the closing seconds, but MSU's Johnson closed out to force UF's Mann to misfire on an off-balanced trey.

UP NEXT
The final test on Mississippi State's three-game homestand will be the first of two meetings with in-state rival Ole Miss on Tuesday. Tip time is on-tap for 8 p.m. CT from Humphrey Coliseum, televised by SEC Network and available online courtesy of the Watch ESPN 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.