Men’s Hoops Blitzes South Carolina, 75-59

Saturday, February 6

Columbia, S.C.

2:30 PM

Mississippi State

11-9,5-6SEC

South Carolina

5-7,3-5SEC

Mississippi St.

South Carolina

Men’s Hoops Blitzes South Carolina, 75-59

February 06, 2021 | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)Postgame Quotes (PDF)Video: Coach Howland Presser Video: Student-Athlete Presser

by Josie Hutton, Student Assistant/Communications

COLUMBIA, South Carolina – D.J. Stewart Jr. delivered a SEC career-high 29 points and added three steals as the Mississippi State men's basketball team collected a 75-59 road victory over South Carolina on Saturday at Colonial Life Arena.

The Bulldogs (11-9, 5-6 SEC) ended a four-game SEC losing skid and snapped a five-game streak for the home team in the South Carolina (5-7, 3-5 SEC) series dating back to the 2017-18 season. The 16-point victory over the Gamecocks equaled the second-largest in the 40-game overall series for State.

For Stewart Jr., it marked his sixth game of 20-plus points in 2020-21 and his seventh career outing of 20 or more points. He fired in a 10-for-17 shooting clip, knocked down 4-of-6 on his three-pointers and connected on 5-of-5 mark at the foul line.

It marked Stewart Jr.'s second-highest scoring performance of his career, slightly behind his 32-point performance versus Dayton earlier this season on 12/12/2020. He has garnered double figures in 18 of State's 20 games this season.

Iverson Molinar tucked away 16 points of his own to go along with four rebounds and four assists. He has notched 10-plus points in 15 of his 17 outings, and the Bulldogs improved to 15-5 when the Panama native scores double-digit points in his career.

Together, the Stewart Jr.-Molinar tandem combined for 45 points on an efficient 15-for-28 shooting performance. The duo has each provided double figures during 10 of State's 11 victories on the season.

Derek Fountain registered a solid all-around performance off the bench. He either set or tied his career-highs with nine points, four rebounds, two assists, two steals and a block over 29 minutes of action. Fountain drained three of his four shot attempts, canned both of his three's and added a free throw for a traditional three-point play.

Tolu Smith provided a solid second-half showing with six of his nine points and five of his team-leading eight rebounds during the last 20 minutes.

Deivon Smith filled the stats sheet with eight points, six rebounds and five assists. He has dished out at least five dimes in seven of his 11 SEC games.

Abdul Ado and Quinten Post contributed two points apiece to round out the scoring for the Bulldogs. Ado, who was making his 117th career start to push him into a third place at MSU with former teammate Quinndary Weatherspoon (2016-17-18-19), hauled down seven rebounds in addition to a pair of blocks and a steal. The seven boards for Ado also allowed him to surpass Leland Mitchell (1961-62-63) for 12th place on the program's all-time list.

Post tacked on four rebounds to enable the Bulldogs to win the rebounding battle for the 17th time in 20 games. The Maroon and White amassed a 46-30 rebounding advantage en route to capturing its eighth outing with a +10 rebounding margin this season. State also got out in transition and piled up 15 of the game's 21 fastbreak points.

For the contest, the Bulldogs managed to convert on 26-of-56 shots (46.4 percent), buried 10-of-19 from beyond the three-point arc (52.6 percent) and sank 13-of-18 at the foul line (72.2 percent). State has won all seven outings in 2020-21 when draining at least eight treys.

South Carolina was bottled up for 19-of-61 effort from the field (31.1 percent), misfired on 20 of its 25 three-point attempts (20.0 percent) and was 16-of-23 (69.6 percent) on free throws.

The Gamecocks were led by A.J. Lawson and Keyshawn Bryant, who tallied 13 points each on 26 shots. Seventh Woods totaled 10 points, while Wildens Leveque came away with seven points and a game-high 10 rebounds for South Carolina.

FROM THE BENCH – COACH HOWLAND
"Our defense has been very consistent the last five games. We're playing as good of defense as we've played since I've been the coach at Mississippi State. Field goal percentage defense was phenomenal again [holding them] to 31 percent today. We did a great job of crushing them on the boards, 46-30."

"I thought we had some great performances today. Notably, I thought D.J. [Stewart Jr.] was fantastic and played a ton of minutes. He had 29 points. He's had games of 29 [points] and 27 [points in conference play] and 32 [points] once [against Dayton]. He's played great. Plus, he knocked down [four three-pointers] – I was really excited about him shooting his three and letting that go … I love it when he just lets it go and is confident in it."

"The player of the game though, for me, was Derek Fountain. He came in the game with incredible stability to be able to play a matchup with their small forwards at the power forwards position ... He's always learning and has a phenomenal attitude. He is a great kid, and he has a great family. His mom is a police officer in Holly Springs [Mississippi]. You can see that with his attitude, and how he's so supportive of his teammates. I'm really happy to see a guy like that being rewarded. There was no nervousness out of him, it was really cool."

"We did a better job today moving the ball, sharing it and hitting the open guy. We had 14 assists, which is really big. Deivon [Smith] had 5 of those, and Iverson [Molinar] had 4. So, your point guards getting nine assists [combined] is big. We moved the ball well. We ended up shooting almost 50 percent from the field and over 50 percent from three."

FROM THE LOCKER ROOM – DEREK FOUNTAIN
"When I first started, I felt a little down, but I had to realize that it's only on me. If I want playing time, I have to do more. I need to work more. I need to prove more. After that, I had a couple talks with the [assistant] coaches. They always told me to just stay ready. When my time comes, be prepared and be ready to play."

MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Mississippi State took an early 5-3 advantage as D.J. Stewart Jr. and Iverson Molinar knocked down the team's first two shot attempts during the opening 56 seconds.

The Gamecocks responded with eight straight points to take an 11-5 lead with 15:47 remaining. Seventh Woods provided a pair of baskets, and two free throws allowed A.J. Lawson to surpass 1,000 career points.

The Bulldogs fired back with an 8-0 run of their own over the next 2:36 off the clock. Stewart Jr. canned a midrange jumper of the top of the key. Then, he found Deivon Smith for a left wing trifecta. Two Tolu Smith foul shots placed State ahead 13-11 with 13:11 left.

Down 21-20 at the 7:40 mark, State ripped off 16 of the next 19 points to snatch a 12-point advantage. Derek Fountain connected with Molinar for a three-ball followed by a Stewart Jr. old-school three-point play and Stewart Jr. midrange jumper off an inbounds play to make it 28-23 with 5:02 to go.

Fountain got into the scoring column with a traditional three-point play of his own. Stewart Jr. canned a right baseline three-pointer courtesy of Deivon Smith, and Quinten Post hit on a turnaround jumper in the lane to stretch the advantage to 36-24 at the 3:00 mark.

South Carolina answered with six consecutive points to draw back to 36-30 at halftime, and came away with a trio of three's within an 89-second span to knot the score at 39-39 with 17:48 remaining.

Trailing 47-45 with 14:38 left, Stewart Jr. delivered a right baseline triple from Molinar to give the Bulldogs the lead for good.

The Maroon and White salted the contest away with a 13-point flurry from the 13:44 mark to the 8:20 mark. The run was highlighted by a Fountain left wing triple from Deivon Smith, a Tolu Smith turnaround jumper through contact, a Tolu Smith tipin off an offensive rebound and a Stewart Jr. deep two-pointer in transition to extend the spread to 63-49.

The Gamecocks would not get within single digits the rest of the way, and State grabbed its largest lead, 68-51 with 6:51 to go, on Stewart Jr.'s fourth three-pointer of the contest.

UP NEXT
Mississippi State plays its first conference home game in 22 days and squares off with LSU on Wednesday. Tip time is slated for 8 p.m. CT from Humphrey Coliseum, 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.