With his hand stamped with the word “TOUGHNESS,” Jamall Edmondson scored a career-high 26 points and had six three-pointers in Mississippi State’s 67-59 win over New Orleans Wednesday.
Reginald Delk added a career-best 16 points, and Jamont Gordon chipped in with 12 in the victory, which snapped a two-game losing streak for the Bulldogs (4-2).
“It is always good when you win a basketball game,” head coach Rick Stansbury said. “But the most important thing is that we needed a win. I couldn’t be more proud of them.”
The Bulldogs jumped out to a 26-10 lead eight minutes into the game after connecting on 10 of their first 11 shots, including all six of their three-point attempts. The Privateers (1-3) immediately stormed back with a 23-3 run and then held the Bulldogs scoreless for the first 4:44 of the second half, but a Vernon Goodridge slam with 13:38 remaining in the game sparked a 17-4 run that would give MSU the lead for good.
Mississippi State was again without starters Dietric Slater and Piotr Stelmach, who are both suffering from ankle injuries.
Edmondson’s 26 points were the most by an MSU player since Lawrence Roberts scored 27 against Arkansas-Little Rock Dec. 11, 2004.
“When you make shots, the world goes around,” Stansbury said. “For Jamall to jump up and make shots like he did, as physically tired as he is, I’m amazed. That was huge for us from those two guys (Edmondson and Delk).”
The Bulldogs hit 11 of their 21 three-point attempts after shooting 18-83 from downtown in five previous games. Edmondson and Delk combined to shoot 10-15 from behind the arc.
“Nobody was expecting it,” Delk said about the hand-stamping. “(Coach Stansbury) had it on his hand. It said toughness. Every time I got tired or when my ankle got rolled, I just looked down and saw the toughness.”
Mississippi State now leads the all-time series 6-1, with the loss to UNO coming in the 1990 National Invitational Tournament.
Southeastern Louisiana 57, Mississippi State 46
Despite a career-high 21 rebounds from Wesley Morgan, Mississippi State dropped its second consecutive game to a Southland Conference opponent, losing 57-46 to Southeastern Louisiana Monday night.
Mississippi State, drained and depleted in its fifth game in 10 days, only dressed eight players. Five of the active Bulldogs were freshman, three of whom started. Starters Dietric Slater and Piotr Stelmach sat out with ankle problems, and forward Charles Rhodes was ill.
“We had a couple of guys that just played as hard they could play for the amount of minutes that they played,” Stansbury said.
Southeastern Louisiana, which returns four starters from its 2004-05 NCAA Tournament team, found the touch from the outside with eight minutes remaining, burying four consecutive three-pointers against what has been an effective Bulldog zone defense. The onslaught, led by SLU forward Quennell Green, gave the Lions their biggest lead of the night, 50-38.
Mississippi State switched from a 2-3 zone to man-to-man, but the damage had been done. The Bulldogs would not get closer than eight points for the rest of the night.
Morgan added 10 points for his second consecutive double-double. His 21 rebounds were the most by any Bulldog since Lawrence Roberts grabbed 21 at Alabama on Mar. 6, 2004. Jamall Edmondson had a team-high 14 points on five-for-19 shooting, and Jamont Gordon added 13 more for Mississippi State (3-2).
The win was the first for SLU in the 16-game series.
Northwestern St. 76, Mississippi State 75 (OT)
Mississippi State built up a 21-point halftime lead but could not hold off a torrid second half run by Northwestern State, dropping the game in overtime 76-75 Saturday.
Keenan Jones’ three-pointer with 44 seconds remaining in the extra session sealed the game for the Demons.
“In the second half they flat out-toughed us, out-worked us and wanted the game more than we did,” Stansbury said.
The Bulldogs (3-1) had a chance to win after Jones missed two free throws with 34.3 seconds remaining, but the stingy Demon defense wouldn’t give Jamall Edmondson a look, and his airball deflected off Dietric Slater out of bounds.
Jamont Gordon led Mississippi State with 15 points. Wesley Morgan had a career-high 13 points and 11 rebounds for his first double-double, and Edmondson also had 13 points for the Bulldogs.
The loss snapped the Bulldogs’ 18-game non-conference home winning streak. The 21-point advantage, held at four different times, was the largest lead surrendered in a loss in the Stansbury era.
Mississippi State 53, Charlotte 38
CHARLOTTE, N.C.-Mississippi State’s plan was simple: Abandon the 2-3 zone defense when Charlotte proved it could beat it.
The Bulldogs never had to.
Mississippi State held Charlotte to school-record lows in points and field-goal percentage as the 49ers shot an abysmal 21.7 percent from the field en route to a 53-38 setback at the hands of the visiting Bulldogs Nov. 23.
State’s zone also limited the home-standing 49ers to a school record nine points in the first half of play.
The 49ers were 4-30 from behind the arc and missed their first 12 attempts.
“I am not a zone person; we don’t normally play zone,” head coach Rick Stansbury said. “We’re having to play zone out of a little bit of necessity for us because we have some people out hurt, and we have so much youth.”
With the Bulldogs leading 39-31, MSU forward Jamont Gordon sunk a three-pointer to extend State’s lead to 11 points with just over eight minutes to play. Piotr Stelmach essentially sealed the win for the Bulldogs when he connected on his only three-point attempt of the game giving MSU a 15-point advantage with less than two minutes to play.
“Pete played huge for us,” Stansbury said. “He played big and with a lot of confidence.”
Stelmach finished one rebound shy of a double-double as the junior tallied 10 points and nine rebounds. Dietric Slater paced the Bulldogs with 13 points.
-Jay D’abramo
Mississippi State 68, Arkansas State 63
Jamall Edmondson scored 11 of his career-high 15 points in the second half, leading Mississippi State down the stretch to a 68-63 victory over Arkansas State Nov. 21.
The Bulldogs (2-0) got a late scare from the Indians after a Dereke Tipler free throw tied the score at 60 with 2:09 to play. Bulldog forward Piotr Stelmach responded 20 seconds later with a 3-pointer from the top of the key to give State the lead for good.
“During the last four minutes of the game, if I had some Maalox, I would have taken the whole bottle,” Stansbury said.
Jamall Edmondson hit five-of-six free throws down the stretch to seal the victory.
Gordon had 16 points on seven-of-11 shooting to lead the Bulldogs, the highest-scoring night by a Mississippi State freshman since Mario Austin had 17 in Feb. 2001.
Isaac Wells, a high school teammate of Bulldog forward Charles Rhodes, was perfect from the field in the first half and finished with 19 points to lead Arkansas State.
Mississippi State continued a stretch of dominance against Arkansas State. Its last loss to the Indians came in 1955.