Mississippi State Men's Basketball Survives Road Test Against Minnesota, Remains Undefeated
Mississippi State (9-0) picked up a key road win on the basketball court on Sunday night, as the Bulldogs downed Minnesota (4-6) by a score of 69-51.
Tolu Smith led the charge for the visiting squad, scoring 20 points and pulling down five rebounds on the night. Shakeel Moore scored 17 points off the bench for MSU, while DJ Jeffries notched 10 points and eight rebounds. Cameron Matthews had 11 points and a team-high three blocked shots.
The Bulldogs got off to a slow start, and the advantage went back and forth between the two teams for much of the first half. Mississippi State started to pull away with less than three minutes remaining until halftime thanks to timely buckets by Moore, Smith and Dashawn Davis. The team ultimately went into the locker room with a 32-24 lead despite shooting just 37.9 percent from the floor and committing costly turnovers.
In the second half, MSU looked like it was made up of a completely different group of players. The team hit 58.3 percent of its shots and dished out nine assists, demonstrating its ability to make plays all over the court. The Bulldogs pushed their lead to 18 points with 12:16 remaining in the game, and although the Golden Gophers tried to catch up, they were unsuccessful in the end.
Mississippi State has held its opponents to under 55 points in each of its nine games -- a stat that ranks the Bulldogs' defense among the best in the nation. That's largely the reason why the squad is one of only seven undefeated teams remaining in DI basketball MSU is also the last SEC team without a loss on its record after both Auburn and Missouri fell in games over the weekend.
The Bulldogs will face Jackson State at the Mississippi Coliseum on Wednesday as they look to improve to 10-0 on the year. Tipoff is set for 6:30 p.m. CT.
