Charles Rhodes scored a game-high 24 points as the Mississippi State men’s basketball team opened exhibition play with an 88-61 victory over Auburn-Montgomery Wednesday night at Humphrey Coliseum despite making 34 turnovers.
“I think I performed well offensively, but my key is to play defense,” Rhodes said. “I need to get a nose for the basketball and rebound better.”
Second team all-SEC selections players Rhodes and Jamont Gordon led the scoring for the Bulldogs combining 40 points and 17 rebounds.
The Bulldogs jumped out to a 16-point lead in the first half and led at intermission 42-28.
MSU came out in the second half firing shots and steadily building on to their lead.
At the 11:34 mark, AUM’s Elmir Forto was ejected from the game for throwing an elbow at a Mississippi State player.
AUM continued to hurt themselves as three players fouled out of the game with just over three minutes left in the second period.
The Bulldogs didn’t handle the ball as well as MSU head coach Rick Stansbury had hoped, but Stansbury acknowledged that this is still a young team.
“I thought we had game slippage out of too many people. The game caused us to speed up, and we had some freshmen make way too many turnovers,” Stansbury said.
MSU got 15 points from Ben Hansbrough and 13 from Regionald Delk.
AUM was led by Joseph Manuel’s 22 points, 15 of which were in the first half.
The Bulldogs will return to action Saturday at home against Oklahoma City in the team’s final exhibition match before beginning regular season play on Monday, Nov. 13.