The good news, the trip is over. The bad news, MSU’s men’s basketball team will limp back to Starkville after the 76-48 whipping they took at Florida, and most of the damage came from the hot hands of the Gator’s Matt Bonner. Bonner led all scorers in the ball game with 25 points on six of nine shooting from behind the arc. Bonner was followed by Gators center Udonis Haslem who posted the game’s only double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds.
The Bulldogs fell behind early by committing 10 turnovers in the first nine minutes of the ballgame. Florida was able to capitalize on the Bulldogs sloppy play by quickly taking a 14-point lead that MSU could never overcome. The Gators forced 20 Bulldog turnovers, 14 in the first half.
“We helped them win that basketball game. We added to it, and Florida is good enough without us adding to it,” MSU head coach Rick Stansbury said after the game.
The Bulldogs only double-digit scorer of the afternoon was Mario Austin with 10 points. Michael Gholar added seven for the Bulldogs and a team high six rebounds. Michal Ignerski, Marckell Patterson and Timmy Bowers each had six points for the game.
MSU got beat in every category on Saturday afternoon. The Bulldogs, who were leading the SEC in field goal percentage and rebound margin, were totally controlled by the pressure defense of the Gators. Florida outrebounded the Bulldogs 42-39 and held MSU to just 37.5 percent from the floor. The 20 points in the first half and 48 in the game were both season lows for MSU.
The fifth ranked Gators pushed their record to 16-4, 5-3 in the SEC; while MSU fell to 17-5, 4-4 in the SEC.
MSU will look to rebound tomorrow evening when they host the Bulldogs of the University of Georgia at the Humphrey Coliseum. State lost to the Georgia Bulldogs 94-73 in Athens, Ga. at the conclusion of the 2000-2001 campaign.
Georgia will return to the Magnolia state after defeating Ole Miss 79-72 Saturday to claim their fourth SEC victory. The SEC East leading Bulldogs are led by a trio of players in double figures. Ezra Williams and Jarvis Hayes both average 17 points per contest while Chris Daniels averages 13. Hayes and Williams rank third and fourth respectively in the SEC in scoring average. The battle of the Bulldogs is set for a 7 p.m. tip-off tomorrow night at the Humphrey Coliseum.