The No. 20 Mississippi State University Bulldogs defeated its instate rival Ole Miss Thursday night 70-60 before a crowd of 10, 364 — the largest crowd of the season — at the Humphrey Coliseum to improve their record to 19-5 overall and 6-3 in the Southeastern Conference.
Head coach Rick Stansbury’s record now stands at 21-8 against the Rebels all-time — the most wins he has against any other opponent. The win avoided a season sweep by the Rebels, and State improved its overall record against Ole Miss to 139-106.  After the Bulldogs lost against Ole Miss the first time the teams met this year in Oxford, senior guard Dee Bost and the rest of the team were hoping to redeem the first loss.
“After the game in Oxford, we just wanted to come out and make sure we didn’t lose this game,” Bost said.
The Bulldogs dominance continues inside the Hump with a record that now stands at 14-1 at home, with 13 of the wins coming in a row.
The game resembled a slam dunk contest and if it were, junior forward Arnett Moultrie would have been the winner. Moultrie recorded six dunks and was on the receiving end of many alley hoops delivered by Bost.
Ole Miss had its hands full all night guarding Moultrie as he finished with 18 points and 9 rebounds.
“I thought they would start to box me out, but they never did,” Moultrie said. “I just kept sneaking behind the defense and pointing my finger up in the air for an alley hoop because of the separation.”
Dee Bost also had a standout performance where he recorded his first double-double of the season with 15 points and 13 assists. His 15 points gave him a total of 1,499 for his career and passed Tony Watts for the 10th-most total points scored in school history. His 13 assists were a career high and 6th most in school history.
“I had a stretch of four or five games where I really didn’t shoot the ball well, but I feel like I came out tonight and had a good shot selection,” Bost said. “When I do that, we win. I’m just trying to be a point guard and get everybody else involved.”
The game began with two straight dunks by junior forward Renardo Sidney and State was up 8-0 early. The Bulldogs never trailed in the game and took a 40-27 lead into the half.
Mississippi State has been notorious for its slow starts in SEC play, but in the last two games against Ole Miss and Auburn the Bulldogs have had impressive first halves. State shot a blistering 50 percent from three point range, going 6 for 12 and shot 51.6 percent from the field in the first half. Rebounding was a key for the Bulldogs success against Ole Miss where State out-rebounded the Rebels 20-11 in the first half and 38-33 for the game. State also held the Rebels to nine total offensive rebounds and eight second chance points in the first half.
State went on to take its largest lead of the game in the second half, 58-40. Chants of  “this is our state” rang out amongst the crowd as State cruised to its 10 point win.
“I’ve got a good feeling of this rivalry now after playing in it this season,” Moultrie said. “I just love the atmosphere of it.”
State has Georgia coming into town for the battle of the Bulldogs this Saturday at 12:30 p.m. at the Hump. Georgia is coming off an impressive win versus the Arkansas Razorbacks and Stansbury said even though this was a big win against Ole Miss, they now have to focus on Georgia.
“We talked about how well we played just now, but tomorrow we will talk about Georgia. A win like this, you enjoy it in the locker room,” Stansbury said. “Georgia counts just as much as Ole Miss.”