If there was any doubt about the Bulldog shooters being able to adjust to the newly-expanded three-point line, that doubt is gone now. In three games, State has drained 30 three-pointers on better than 44 percent shooting.
In Monday’s game against the University of Louisiana at Monroe, the Dawgs opened the game by scoring their first 15 points from downtown, pushing out an 11-point lead in about five minutes. The Bulldogs never looked back and pocketed a 78-49 win led by junior guard Barry Stewart’s 17 points.
Wednesday’s game against North Alabama also saw the Bulldogs establish a lead early on the way to a 102-61 victory, but they did it quite differently than on Monday.
Of State’s first 10 points, eight came from the paint. The other two were on a short jumper by freshman point guard Dee Bost. The difference was largely due to the play of junior center Jarvis Varnado, who tallied a team-high 16 points Wednesday after sinking only one field goal Monday for two points.
UNA leading scorer Thomas Fraise had high praise for Varnado, who turned away seven Lion shots Wednesday.
“[Varnado’s] a human flyswatter. He blocks everything,” Fraise said. “I did all I could to get around him, over him, even through him.”
Fraise said he hoped not to go against another player with Varnado’s special skill set.
“I probably won’t see anyone that long or athletic in our league, thank God,” he said.
Varnado’s 23 blocks on the young season leads the nation and his 247 career blocks put him two shy of former MSU great Erick Dampier for the all-time MSU lead.
In addition to Varnado’s dominance, State’s bench played remarkably well on Wednesday, accumulating 47 points.
The second unit of Phil Turner, Elgin Bailey, Romero Osby, Riley Benock and Jacquiese Holcombe came in with a five-point lead and expanded the lead to 21 points.
Head coach Rick Stansbury said he doesn’t like to label a first team and second team.
“We’re going to take those pieces eventually and put them all together and see what works best,” Stansbury said, “but we aren’t going to seperate two different teams. Right now there’s a lot of toughness in that second group, but we have to keep them from turning the ball over and getting them to execute a little better.”
Stansbury said his team has great depth that creates competition. That competition drives the players to play hard the whole game, as noted by North Alabama coach Bobby Champagne.
“Around the four-minute timeout, they had four guys diving on the floor for a loose ball and they got the timeout and they were up 30 points,” Champagne said. “That’s a testament to how hard they’re playing.”
So far this season, the Bulldogs have yet to trail in a game, but the road gets tougher from here. Stansbury said he knows this and his team is pushing to improve.
“We’ve got to get better because the competition is going to get better,” he said. “We’re getting ready to go on the road next week, and it darn sure gets a lot tougher there.”
The Bulldogs host Fairleigh Dickinson University Saturday. The Knights are currently 0-1 on the season after a season-opening 86-63 loss to Pittsburgh and a 55-33 loss to Washington State.
Next week the young Bulldogs hit the road for the first time, heading to Olean, N.Y. to face St. Bonaventure before traveling to Newark, N.J. for the championship rounds of the Legends Classic.