The University of Wisconsin in Green Bay (1-2) found themselves within two possessions a couple of times, but Mississippi State University (3-0) was able to hang on to a 77-68 victory.
Sophomore guard Lamar Peters, from New Orleans, Louisiana, and the Bulldogs struggled shooting, especially from three point range.
“We have been shooting it a lot, and good at practice, just keep believing and never getting away from it,” Peters said. “I feel like at times we miss a couple shots and we put our heads down, and that has an effect on us for the rest of the game. I feel like it will come along as the season goes.”
Peters scored 18 points Monday night in 29 minutes, much of his success came when he drove the lane. Peters admitted he took some bad shots from long range, but he made an adjustment in the second half.
“I still settled, I felt like I settled to just some quick threes when I could have gotten to the paint,” Peters said. “In the second half, I wanted to do that: get inside and try to find guys like Tyson and Q. Those are some shots that I know will fall.”
This was the second game for redshirt freshman forward Abdul Adu, from Lagos, Nigeria, who played an excellent 24 minutes with his first double double, scoring 12 points and grabbing 11 rebounds.
“After the first game, the whole nervousness thing went away, play every day, and I take every game as practice, I’m playing to become a better person,” Adu said. “I try to outwork you, I try to do anything possible to get my team to win. Set the screen, block shots, play defense, rebound the basketball, and shooting, whatever I can to help my team win.”
Green Bay gave MSU a challenge with their zone defense. Head coach Ben Howland gave the team a lot of credit for how they played.
“We beat a good team tonight, that team is a good, hard-nosed, tough team. When we had built a really solid lead, they never gave up,” Howland said. “They hardly played any of it last year, and we will spend a lot more time on 1-3-1 moving forward.”
The team will take on Stephen F. Austin University on Wednesday at 7 p.m., and it will be a challenge for MSU to face. Stephen F. Austin upset West Virginia last year, and almost beat Notre Dame in the NCAA Tournament.
“They are an NCAA tournament team, they are very well-coached, and they are older, and they are athletic,” Howland said. “We have played two games in the last three days, but they have been sitting there preparing for us for a week, and I guarantee you they are coming in here ready to play us. We are going to need everything we got to have success against them.”
