Defense Fuels Men's Hoops to South Carolina Sweep, 69-48

Wednesday, February 24

Starkville

6:00 PM

Mississippi State

13-11,7-8SEC

South Carolina

5-12,3-10SEC

South Carolina

Mississippi St.

Photo by: Mississippi State Athletics

Defense Fuels Men's Hoops to South Carolina Sweep, 69-48

February 24, 2021 | Men's Basketball

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

By: Mikaela Elizondo, Graduate Assistant/Communications

STARKVILLE – The Mississippi State men's basketball team set the tone on the defensive end en route to a 69-48 rout and a regular season sweep over South Carolina on Wednesday at Humphrey Coliseum.

Over the team's last four victories, the Bulldogs (13-11, 7-8 SEC) have limited their opponents to 54.8 points per game and a collective 32.9 shooting percentage.

MSU bottled up South Carolina (5-12, 3-10 SEC) to a 29.0 percent shooting clip, the lowest for a SEC opponent against the Bulldogs since Arkansas went 16-of-72 for 22 percent during Ben Howland's first season on 02/09/2016.

Mississippi State has won four straight at Humphrey Coliseum and 14 of the 18 all-time meetings over the Gamecocks in Starkville.

The last time the Bulldogs earned a two-game regular season sweep over a SEC opponent with both victories coming by 10-plus points was against LSU (95-78 and 88-76) during the 2016-17 season.

The 21-point margin of victory marked the seventh time that State has defeated a SEC opponent by 20-plus points under Howland.

D.J. Stewart Jr. provided 12 of his team-leading 15 points in the first half. It marked his 20th game in double figures on the season. He was an efficient 8-for-9 from the charity stripe and dished out with five assists coupled with four rebounds.

Abdul Ado captured double figures for the third time during the 2020-21 campaign. He worked his way to 11 points, eight rebounds and three blocks. It marked the 66th time over 122 career games that Ado has collected multiple blocks.

Tolu Smith and Iverson Molinar provided nine points apiece, as Smith nearly tucked away his eighth double-double on the season. He hauled down a career-high 12 of his 13 rebounds on the defensive end.

State's freshmen class accounted for 17 combined points. Derek Fountain tallied a strong all-around effort with seven points, three rebounds, two assists and two blocks. Deivon Smith notched six points, three rebounds and two steals. Andersson Garcia garnered four points and a rebound in his minute of action.

Quinten Post and Javian Davis chipped in solid performances off the bench with four points and five rebounds each.

Mississippi State improved to 43-5 when holding the opposition to under 60 points during the Howland era with 35 of those 48 contests coming inside Humphrey Coliseum.

For the contest, State hit 24-of-51 shots from the field (47.1 percent), 4-of-12 shots from three-point range (33.3 percent) and 17-of-22 shots from the foul line (77.3 percent).

Mississippi State held the advantage in nearly every statistical category. The Bulldogs blitzed South Carolina on the glass by a 49-24 margin. The +25 rebounding advantage marked the program's highest rebounding spread versus a SEC opponent when the Bulldogs outrebounded Arkansas by +25 on 02/27/2002.

South Carolina connected on 18-of-62 overall (29.0 percent), 4-of-21 on three-pointers (19.0 percent) and hit on 8-of-11 at the charity stripe (72.7 percent). Keyshawn Bryant paced the Gamecocks with 14 points.

State's defense put the clamps on Carolina's leading scorer, A.J. Lawson, for the second time this season. He entered the contest averaging 18.3 points per game which was third in the SEC. He scored a combined 23 points and misfired on 17 of his 25 shot attempts in two games against the Bulldogs this season.

FROM THE BENCH WITH COACH HOWLAND
"I give D.J. [Stewart Jr.], and our team defense a lot of credit. I thought our defense was fantastic again. I love the rebounding. I thought Tolu [Smith] with 13 rebounds, and Abdul [Ado] with eight really anchored it. Tolu [Smith] was great tonight on the defensive glass – he had a career-high in defensive rebounds. I thought Deivon [Smith] did a great job moving the ball, sharing the ball and he knocked down a couple of big three's. I thought Derek [Fountain] was really good, especially early in the game. He hit a big three early, and he did a lot of good things for us. That was a really good team win."

"Again, tonight we had 16 assists on our 24 baskets. We had 15 assists on our 25 baskets on Saturday [at Ole Miss], back-to-back games where we've really done a good job of sharing the ball. Everybody was doing it, and that was really big."

FROM THE LOCKER ROOM – D.J. STEWART JR.
"We have to keep playing together and keep playing hard. We have to keep this thing going. It has been a learning experience for me. I am comfortable with it. I played point guard in high school. I am an unselfish player. It is all about finding the openings and making the right reads."

FROM THE LOCKER ROOM – TOLU SMITH
"It [our confidence] is good. So, going through adversity in the middle of the season during that rough patch is good on our team as a unit. Being together as one as we go through ups and downs is good for this team going into big games against [No. 6] Alabama and heading into the conference tournament."

MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Mississippi State hit on four of its first six shots and its first five free throw attempts to fire out to a 15-5 lead during the opening 5:11 of the contest.

Derek Fountain turned his own block shot on the defensive end into a left wing triple courtesy of a nice feed from D.J. Stewart Jr. in transition. Then, Stewart Jr. canned a three-ball of his own from Deivon Smith, and Stewart Jr. found Fountain for a layup to make it a 10-point game.

The Bulldogs extended their advantage to 16 points, 27-11 at 5:53 mark, on an Abdul Ado tipin.

South Carolina pulled within 13 points at 33-20 with 2:37 remaining. However, Deivon Smith drove and kicked to Stewart Jr. who buried a left wing three-pointer to beat the first half buzzer and vault the Bulldogs to a 38-23 edge going into the locker room.

Up 45-33 with 13:40 left in the second half, State put the game away with 12 of the next 16 points over a 6:22 span.

Javian Davis ignited the flurry with a reverse layup and drop an assist to Tolu Smith for another layup. Iverson Molinar tacked on a runner off glass in transition, while Abdul Ado added a tipin, and Deivon Smith capped the run with a trey from the top of the key to bring the score to 57-37 with 7:18 to go.

Mississippi State closed out the 21-point decision with a pair of baskets apiece from Quinten Post and Andersson Garcia.

UP NEXT
The Bulldogs conclude their 2020-21 home slate and play host to No. 6 Alabama for Senior Night on Saturday. Tip time is scheduled for 5 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.