In the first half Wednesday night it looked like the Mississippi State Bulldogs were treating their game against Louisiana-Monroe like a pre-season scrimmage. The focus and intensity just wasn’t there and the resulting in a 37-31 lead over the underdog Indians. That’s when the Bulldogs decided they had had enough and it was time to flex their muscles.
The Bulldogs roared out of the gate after halftime with a 22-4 run and never looked back, cruising to a 76-52 win over ULM in front of 4,352 at Humphrey Coliseum.
“(I told them at halftime) that’s not the way we play and that’s not acceptable,” said head coach Rick Stansbury. “The players didn’t accept (the first half effort) and they came out and played and I like that about them.”
Winsome Frazier led the way for the 5-0 Bulldogs with 19 points and Lawrence Roberts had his fourth double-double of the season with 14 points and 11 rebounds in the victory.
Roberts, along with the rest of the team, found the going tough in the paint early in the game. He had no points until the last 2:39 of the first half, but quickly scored seven to help expand a one point Bulldog lead.
“I was just trying to get a feel for the game in the beginning,” said Roberts. “(The officials) were letting us play in the post and it was a little physical so you have to adapt to how they’re going to call the game. I think we just adapted (right before) halftime.”
Mississippi State came out running in the second half as a six point lead expanded to 24 before the crowd could catch its breath.
The 22-4 Bulldog run was highlighted by 3-pointers by Roberts and Timmy Bowers and a monstrous slam dunk by Roberts off of a behind the back pass by Frazier.
“I told Timmy Bowers ‘Hey, we’ve got to get something going because this ain’t us, this ain’t how we play,'” said Frazier. “We were playing at their level and that’s the level we didn’t want to go to.”
The Bulldogs tightened the defense in the second half and held the 1-6 Indians, who shot 38.2 percent in the first half, to 21 points on a dismal 8-41 (19.5 percent) shooting performance.
State also forced 19 turnovers that led to 14 fast break points.
“Our defense got us going,” said Stansbury. “When you get defensive stops, you’re running transition and getting transition baskets. Everything just works better. That’s where everything starts, the defensive end.”
The defensive clinic that Mississippi State put on impressed Louisiana-Monroe head coach Mike Vining. Vining called MSU the most physical team his Indians had played so far and said they match up very well with pre-season SEC West favorite LSU. The Tigers beat ULM 96-65 on Nov. 29.
“Mississippi State and LSU would be neck and neck in my opinion,” said Vining.
Mississippi State looks to continue its regular season non-conference win streak when they play host to a tough UAB team from Conference USA at 1 p.m. Saturday at The Hump. Roberts said that the Bulldogs will have to play the entire game much better than they did against ULM if they want to pick up a W.
“It’s just basically being better prepared.” said Roberts. “We’ve just got to come out there the first half and play with a lot of focus and a lot of energy and just come out there and play hard.”