Howland and Co. Head to the Holiday Break With 84-63 Win Over Winthrop
Although those at home weren’t able to watch it, the Mississippi State Men’s basketball team was able to secure a much-needed, momentum-building win against Winthrop in the Jackson (MS) Coliseum on Tuesday night.
Iverson Molinar came out red hot and DJ Jeffries picked up any slack he left off to help the Bulldogs cruise to a comfortable 84-63 victory. Molinar led the way with 22 points, while Jeffries had his best game in the maroon and white - pouring in another 19.
Molinar was a presence at the free-throw line, grabbing 8 of his points from the charity stripe, but Jeffries was letting it fly from a different stripe - the three-point line. He finished 2-5 from beyond the arc, and the rest of the squad followed suit, shooting 42.9% on the night as a team. Bulldog head coach Ben Howland addressed this shooting after the game.
“I thought we did really well, especially in the first half, shooting 66% from the field and 50% from three,” said Howland, “I thought we did an excellent job of defending the three-point line, they were only 5-20 and that’s what they do, they make 39% of their threes on the year and shoot a lot of threes.”
“We just came out with some intensity,” former Olive Branch (MS) high school forward DJ Jeffries said of the team’s hot start after the game, “coach wanted us to go 3-0 coming into the break, you know, and just build on that going into conference play.”
Said conference play will begin December 29th, as the Bulldogs play host to the freshly unranked Arkansas Razorbacks. The Hogs are in the middle of a little bit of a slump, and since earning a top 10 spot have plummeted out of the AP rankings since week 4. The Razorbacks are still a 10-2 team, however, and will undoubtedly be a tough opening game for Howland and the rest of this Bulldog squad. MSU’s record currently sits at 9-3 after this win, placing them 8th in the conference going into league play.
That game is set for an 8 p.m CT tipoff, but for now, coach Howland and his team will head home to spend the holidays with their families.
