Postgame Notes: MSU at Missouri

TEAM NOTES

In a back-and-forth affair that saw nine ties and seven lead changes, Mississippi State came out on top with its first road win of the season, 58-56, at Missouri.
The Bulldogs trailed 56-53 inside the last two minutes before scoring the game's last five points. Iverson Molinar provided the game-tying basket with a left-handed layup off an inbounds play with 37 seconds left. Then, Shakeel Moore went coast-to-coast with a driving layup through contact with 10 seconds to go.
State's defense forced Missouri to misfire on its last six shots of the first half and its final four shot attempts of the second half.
The victory enabled the Maroon and White improve to 16-11 overall and 7-7 in SEC action. State also enters into a five-way tie with Alabama, Florida, LSU and South Carolina for 5th place in the SEC standings.
Coach Howland has faced the same SEC opponent in back-to-back games for the fourth time at Mississippi State. The Bulldogs improve to 7-1 in those games. The previous three occasions came to close the regular season and open the SEC Tournament were against LSU in 2016-17, LSU in 2017-18 and Texas A&M in 2018-19.
Mississippi State has won six straight going back to 2018-19 and 10 of the last 11 meetings since 2014-15 to improve to 12-5 all-time against the Tigers. The six consecutive wins is the program's longest active streak versus Missouri.
The Bulldogs won the battle of the boards, 38-30, on the strength of 13 offensive rebounds.
As a team, State shot 19-of-51 from the floor (37.3 percent), 3-of-14 from three-point range (21.4 percent), and 17-of-24 from the free throw line (70.8 percent).

PLAYER NOTES

Iverson Molinar

Pumped home a team-leading 16 points headed by an 8-for-10 clip at the foul line.
Extended his streak to 27 consecutive games in double figures to start the season.
Passed Marckell Patterson (1999-2000-01-02) to move into 29th place on the program's all-time scoring list.

Garrison Brooks

Poured in 11 points fueled by a pair of three-pointers, his seventh game with multiple treys.
Double figures in six of his last seven outings.
Collected seven rebounds with five coming on the offensive glass.
Multiple blocks in four of his last six contests.

Tolu Smith

Added six points and grabbed a game-leading eight rebounds.
Has led MSU in rebounding in 26 of his 44 career games.

DJ Jeffries

Chipped in six points and two rebounds.

Bench

State scored 17 of the game's 23 points off the bench.
The Bulldogs are 9-3 when outscoring their opponents in bench points this season.
Shakeel Moore provided nine points, a season's best seven rebounds and two steals.
Has two or more steals in 15 games this season and 26 of 52 career games.
Andersson Garcia contributed six points, six rebounds, two assists and two steals.
State is 8-1 when Garcia scores at least six points this season.
Eighth outing with at least five rebounds, eighth time with multiple steals and seventh performance with multiple assists for Garcia in 2021-22.

Postgame Notes: MSU at Missouri

Players Mentioned

Garrison Brooks

Andersson Garcia

Iverson Molinar

Shakeel Moore

Tolu Smith III

Mississippi State University Athletics

Postgame Notes: MSU at Missouri

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Players Mentioned

Garrison Brooks

Andersson Garcia

Iverson Molinar

Shakeel Moore

Tolu Smith III

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