A calm and collected Dietric Slater minimized mistakes and led an extended second half run to send the Chattanooga Moccasins home on a sour note.
Slater scored a career-high 20 points and Jamall Edmondson had 13 for Mississippi State in a 64-48 win Saturday night over Chattanooga.
“I just told our guys that we have been in a lot of big wins over the years, but I’m not for sure that I’m more proud of a group of guys than this group tonight,” coach Rick Stansbury said. “Not by just winning the game, but by the way we had to win it by overcoming so many things.”
Edmondson made a jumper in the key to end the first half and give Mississippi State a 32-26 halftime lead after the Bulldogs trailed midway through the opening period. The basket came during a 27-6 run that extended from late in the first half into the second.
Charles Rhodes began the run on a dunk off a missed free throw to tie the score at 26 with 2:06 remaining in the opening half. The spurt allowed Mississippi State to coast to Stansbury’s 150th career victory.
Edmondson had been sidelined indefinitely with a groin injury but an injury to backup Richard Delk forced a surprisingly early return.
“I wasn’t 100 percent tonight,” Edmondson said. “My shot was off, but I had to keep shooting. With treatment, by Monday, I should be back to normal.”
The injury to Delk changed the defensive schemes and rotations Saturday. The Bulldogs opened with a 2-3 zone, and swingman Jamont Gordon filled in as the backup point guard.
“I told my coaches, for the first time I’ve been here, that is the first time I opened in a zone and it worked for us,” Stansbury said.
Gordon became just the second freshman under the Stansbury era to start in his collegiate debut, joining Mario Austin, and will likely run the team while Delk recovers.
“They call it a hot spot,” Stansbury said about Delk’s injury, which is expected to keep him out a bare minimum of two weeks. “It’s the next thing to a stress fracture-right above his foot.”
Slater put Mississippi State up by 22 points, 55-33, on a layup off a fastbreak with 9 minutes remaining. Slater eclipsed his previous career-high of 11 points against Auburn on Feb. 5.
“I think I had to master the art of slowing down in, like, a week,” Slater said. “I said, ‘I have this many points? Just by slowing down?’ I scared myself.”
A night of firsts for Slater also included a career-high six rebounds and a dunk.
“It’s much more positive than it has been,” Stansbury said on Slater’s performance. “I thought he finished plays much better tonight. We never question his effort; we all know what we question, and he limited those tonight. He played to exhaustion, and he finished plays-that is what we need him doing.”
Mississippi State has won 17 of its past 20 season openers and is 6-2 in the Stansbury era.
Chattanooga held an 18-13 lead after Kedrick Mays’ three-pointer with 8:44 left in the first half. The Mocs never reclaimed the lead after Rhodes’ dunk. Rhodes finished with a career-high 12 points.
Casey Long led Chattanooga with 11 points. The Mocs shot just 30.8 percent from the field. Jaycen Herring added 10 points and Alphonso Pugh had 13 rebounds.
“I’m really impressed with what Mississippi State did tonight,” Chattanooga coach John Shulman said. “They came out and really surprised us by playing a 2-3 zone. With those long-ranged athletes, they’re pretty good at what they’re doing. They’re very difficult to play against. Their freshmen played very well. Ours looked scared to death.”