Mississippi State opens season with 66-56 win over Western Carolina
Rick Ray and Mississippi State opened up their 2014-2015 campaign with a 66-56 victory over the Western Carolina University Catamounts. The game was certainly not the prettiest that you could have watched, but the job was done well enough. With this victory, the Bulldogs have now won 400 games in Humphrey Coliseum. Speaking of the Hump, the crowd was…lacking. And that’s putting it very nicely. For the most part, only a handful of people stood during the game, including the students. Needless to say, the atmosphere should improve throughout the season if all goes well.
This game was a game of two halves for sure. In the first half, Mississippi State only managed to hold a 1 point lead by way of a Gavin Ware layup as time expired. What was the cause of the close score? In one word, turnovers. The Bulldogs amassed 12 turnovers in the first half, nearly reaching their season average last year of 13.9 turnovers per game. You could tell from the stands that Rick Ray was not happy about the performance of this Bulldog squad in the first half. On the other side of the court, Western Carolina was hitting everything from range. Also, the Bulldogs put themselves in a hole by committing a lot of personal fouls in the first half. This really limited the amount of physicality the Bulldogs could put up with, thus limiting the effectiveness of the guys down low.
The second half came, and the Bulldogs looked like a completely different team. They jumped out to an early gap in the second half, then went into a lull. This team is very much Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Some of that can be attributed to the amount of Freshmen getting on the court for Rick Ray’s squad in absence of Craig Sword. Sword was expected to miss tonight’s game, as he had not been cleared by the athletic trainers. Ray before the game told media that Chicken would be held out of tonight’s game in order to make sure he is 100% before playing. The Bulldogs, in contrast to the first half, only committed 4 turnovers in the second half. Also, the Bulldogs put many Catamount defenders in foul trouble early. By the end of the game, three players for Western Carolina fouled out.
Scoring wise for MSU, the team was led by F Roquez Johnson with 16 points and 5 rebounds. Next came Junior guard Fred Thomas (lacking his flat-top hair) with 15 points, 6 rebounds, and one heck of a block. Junior F Gavin Ware finished with his first double-double of the season amassing 14 points and 10 rebounds in tonight’s game. In contrast to the exhibition vs. Delta State, Demetrius Houston was held pretty much in check as he only accounted for 3 points. He did make up for it, however, by snagging 7 boards for the Bulldogs.
For Western Carolina, Senior guard James Sinclair easily paced the squad with 20 points, most of which coming from deep. Fellow guards Mike Brown and Rhett Harrelson joined in the 3-point affair with 11 and 14, respectively. Western Carolina most definitely lived and died by the 3 as they shot 37.5% from range at a 9-24 rate. Overall, the Catamounts were held in check only shooting 36.2% overall and turning it over 11 times.
The Bulldogs will stay at home for a Monday matchup against the Mississippi Valley State University Delta Devils. The game will be broadcast on SEC Network + and on the Mississippi State Radio Network. Tip-off for the game is set 7:00 PM CST at the Hump. Let’s get win #401 Monday night, shall we?