The men’s basketball team will take on the Arkansas Razorbacks Wednesday at the Humphrey Coliseum. State (13-10, 4-6) comes into Wednesday’s game after earning its first conference road win in two seasons.
The Bulldogs defeated Auburn 91-83 on Saturday, putting the team back in the hunt for the SEC Western division crown.
“I haven’t been disappointed with the way our teams played all year long, other than the South Carolina game,” MSU head coach Rick Stansbury said. “Outside that, our team has played with great effort. We just had to get better with that on the road.”
With the win, State pulled within one game of division leader and conference foe Ole Miss.
In the game, junior forward Charles Rhodes had a game-high 25 points, while four other Bulldogs also scored in double figures.
Freshman guard Barry Stewart recaptured his stroke from outside the arch, going 4-7 from outside for 12 points. Sophomore Jamont Gordon added 19 points.
“This win tells us we can do it,” Stewart said. “We have a lot of games ahead of us and some more on the road. We can beat those teams on the road.”
The Razorbacks (15-9, 4-6) enter the Valentine’s Day matchup coming off a narrow loss on the road to the Tigers of LSU.
In that game the Hogs recovered from a 10-point deficit in the second half, only to see the game slip away in the final minutes.
Freshman guard Patrick Beverley lead the Razorbacks with 17 points, and junior forward Charles Thomas added 11 points and six rebounds.
Wednesday’s match-up will be the first meeting of the season between the two division foes.
Last year, the two teams split the season series with both teams winning on their own home court.
In Starkville last season, State beat the Razorbacks 69-67.
So far this season, the Bulldogs rank fifth in the league in scoring, averaging 76 points per contest.
State also ranks seventh in defense (67 points allowed) and leads the conference in blocked shots (seven per game).
The Razorbacks own the league’s 10th-best scoring offense (72 points) and have the league’s third-best defense, giving up only 64 points per game.
The Hogs also rank second in the league in defensive rebounding.
State continues to be led in scoring by sophomore Jamont Gordon, who averages 16 points per game and ranks sixth in the league.
Gordon also ranks seventh in rebounding (7) and sixth in assists (5).
Arkansas is led in scoring by Patrick Beverley with 14 points per game, and center Steven Hill leads the league in blocked shots with three per game.
Wednesday’s game will also mark the return of former MSU and current Arkansas guard Gary Ervin.
Ervin transferred after the Bulldogs 2004-2005 season and had to sit out last season due to the NCAA transfer rule.
As a sophomore in 2005, Ervin started 33 of 34 games and averaged 7.4 points per game for the Bulldogs.