Men’s Hoops Falls to Vanderbilt, 72-51

Saturday, February 13

Starkville

12:00 PM

Mississippi State

11-11,5-8SEC

Vanderbilt

6-10,2-8SEC

Vanderbilt

Mississippi St.

Photo by: Mississippi State Athletics

Men’s Hoops Falls to Vanderbilt, 72-51

February 13, 2021 | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)Postgame Quotes (PDF)VIDEO: Postgame Presser

by Mikaela Elizondo, Graduate Assistant/Communications

STARKVILLE – Iverson Molinar dialed up a team-leading 19 points, but Vanderbilt connected 10 of its 13 three-pointers and used a 17-0 run towards the ends of the first half en route to a 72-51 victory over Mississippi State on Saturday afternoon at Humphrey Coliseum.

The Bulldogs (11-11, 5-8 SEC) were unable to capture a regular season sweep and had their three-game winning streak over Vanderbilt (6-10, 2-8 SEC) come to a close.

For Molinar, he tallied 13 of his 19 points during the opening half and relied on a 9-of-13 shooting clip to compile his 17th game in double figures on the season. He also came away with six rebounds and two steals.

Deivon Smith and D.J. Stewart Jr. came away with nine points apiece. Off the bench, Smith filled the box score with six boards, six assists and a steal, while Stewart Jr. worked his way to three assists and two steals.

Tolu Smith picked up seven points, six rebounds and a block followed by Abdul Ado's four points and a block. Ado was among State's starting five for the 119th time of his career to move into a second-place tie with the NCAA's all-time blocks leader, Jarvis Varnado (2007-08-09-10) in program history.

Derek Fountain and Javian Davis rounded out the scoring for the Bulldogs. Fountain made his first career start and notched two points to go along with two rebounds and a steal, while Davis secured a point and two rebounds. Cameron Matthews handed out two assists whereas Quinten Post secured three rebounds.

For the contest, MSU turned in a 22-of-52 shooting effort (42.3 percent), a 5-of-19 clip on its three-point attempts (26.3 percent) and was 2-of-4 at the foul line (50.0 percent).

The Bulldogs dialed up 14 assists and committed 17 turnovers, while the Commodores had 16 assists and 13 turnovers. State was limited to three offensive rebounds and 18 paint points which enabled Vanderbilt to tuck away a 36-27 edge on the glass.

Vandy countered with a 25-of-55 mark from the field (45.5 percent), were 13-of-30 from beyond the three-point line (43.3 percent) and was 9-of-12 on free throws (75.0 percent).

The Commodores had three players in double figures as Maxwell Evans, Scotty Pippen Jr. and Clevon Brown combined for 53 points on a collective 19-of-33 shooting performance. Evans amassed 15 of his game-leading 20 points during the second half followed by Pippen Jr.'s 18 points, nine assists and three steals. Brown chipped in 15 points and five steals.

FROM THE BENCH WITH COACH HOWLAND
"The thing that really hurt us was how we started the game because we talked about how good of a three-point shooting team this [Vanderbilt] team was. We're trying to run them off the three-point line. Even if they beat us on the drive, we're not going to let them pull in our face because they're such a good shooting team. We neglected to do that, 10 three's in the first half were really digging a hole for ourselves."

"There's no question – we struggled to score today, 51 points, I thought them doubling on the ball was an issue for us, and we did not handle it well. That was the example that I used [with Fountain], but there were other people as well there during that 17-0 run. It just blew the door wide open."

"I thought we didn't do a good enough job getting Tolu [Smith] touches in there [the paint]. I thought we handled the pressure poorly today when we were being pressured. Only getting to the foul line four times, I don't remember having a team that only shot four foul shots in a conference game … You've got to get to the foul line more than that, especially when you're not a great three-point shooting team. We were 5-for-19. And again, the turnovers hurt us. A lot of turnovers – a lot of them coming out of when the ball is being doubled and not helping that man that's being doubled and not being able to react properly."

FROM THE LOCKER ROOM – IVERSON MOLINAR
"We have to keep pushing. We have to stop the bleeding, and we have to stay positive. I try to stay positive myself. I'm trying to not let my inner emotions effect my teammates. I always have a smile on my face when I come to practice. During film, [I] tell them what we did right, and what we did wrong. No beating around the bush, I tell them straight up."

MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Mississippi State opened the scoring with an Iverson Molinar floater in the lane courtesy of an Abdul Ado screen. However, Vanderbilt was able to find its groove from three-point territory. Scotty Pippen Jr. canned a trio of three's in the opening 2:11 on the contest to give the Commodores a 9-4 edge.

The Bulldogs fired back with a Tolu Smith layup off an offensive rebound. Then, State was able to turn defense into offense as a Derek Fountain steal resulted in a D.J. Stewart Jr. trifecta to knot the score at 9-9 with 16:46 left.

Mississippi State held a brief advantage, 13-12 with 15:26 to go, as Stewart Jr. found Molinar for a dunk in transition.

Facing a 25-17 deficit with 8:58 remaining, the Bulldogs put together 11 of the next 14 points to draw event at 28-28. Deivon Smith provided three key assists to ignite the flurry – one to Molinar for a left wing trey, one to Tolu Smith on a drive-and-dish dunk and one of a Molinar right baseline jumper off an inbounds play. Molinar would provide the equalizer on a reverse layup.

Vanderbilt responded with 17 straight points before a Deivon Smith jumper to beat the buzzer made the score 45-30 at halftime. The Commodores ended up with 10 first-half triples, four by Scotty Pippen Jr. and a pair from Dylan Disu.

The Commodores stretched their halftime advantage to 20 points, 55-35 at the 15:20 mark, on a Maxwell Evans three-ball.

Mississippi State would get no closer than 14 points the rest of the way. A Molinar deep two in transition brought the margin to 60-46 with 7:42 on the clock. The 21-point margin of defeat was the largest of the season for the Bulldogs.

UP NEXT
Mississippi State returns to the road to face Auburn on Tuesday. The Tigers are the lone SEC opponent State has yet to meet in 2020-21. Tip time is on-tap for 8 p.m. CT from Auburn Arena, televised by ESPNU 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.