The Mississippi State men’s basketball team will play host to Vanderbilt at Humphrey Coliseum Wednesday. Mississippi State (15-10, 6-6) enters Wednesday night’s game after earning a victory against the Tigers of LSU.
The Bulldogs defeated the Tigers 56-50 in Baton Rouge, La., over the weekend, earning its second conference road win of the season.
State took control of the game early on and maintained the lead down the stretch to preserve the win.
Charles Rhodes and Jamont Gordon lead the Bulldogs with 15 points each, and Dietric Slater added 6 points and 10 rebounds to State’s effort.
With the win, the Bulldogs pull into a three-way tie for first place in the SEC West with Ole Miss and Alabama. The Dawgs have won four of their last five SEC games.
“I’m proud of our kids. They’ve done this the hard way,” head coach Rick Stansbury said. “We’ve done it the hard way to get ourselves back into position, and that’s good because now it is going to mean more to the players.”
The Commodores (18-8, 8-4), fresh off a routing of the No. 1 Florida Gators 83-70, enter the game with a lot of confidence.
Vanderbilt’s upset was lead by Derrick Byars and Shan Foster, who both scored 24 points in the game.
It was Vanderbilt’s first win over a No. 1 team since they beat Kentucky in 1993.
When the two teams met last, the Commodores cruised to an 80-52 home win in Nashville last season.
The lone star in that game for State was Charles Rhodes, who scored 19 points.
MSU hopes to improve its winning streak to four behind the play of Jamont Gordon, its leading scorer.
Gordon averages 16 points per game, which ranks sixth-best in the league.
He also ranks eighth in the league in rebounding with seven per game and sixth in assists (5 per game).
Junior Charles Rhodes also ranks among the league’s elite, averaging 13 points per game.
The Commodores are led in scoring by senior guard Derrick Byars, who averages 17 points – fourth best in the league.
As a team, the Bulldogs have the SEC’s fifth-ranked offense, averaging 76 points per game. Mississippi State also ranks fifth in defense, allowing 67 points per game.