Following a tough stretch of conference losses, the Mississippi State men’s basketball team bounced back on Saturday, taking down Vanderbilt 68-55 in a must-win home contest.
A stellar performance from star center Tolu Smith led the way for the Bulldogs (13-5, 2-3 SEC) to defeat the Commodores (5-13, 0-5 SEC) in a low-scoring affair Saturday afternoon.
Things opened up with both teams finding buckets early. Vanderbilt held a 12-10 lead at the 12:54 mark, but Mississippi State went on a 14-0 run in the next five minutes of action, which would ultimately put the game out of reach.
The Bulldogs, with Smith exposing Vanderbilt’s smaller lineup, found look after look down low and continued to separate on the scoreboard as the first half winded down. A successful triple by freshman sensation Josh Hubbard put the Bulldogs up 36-21 at the intermission.
A strong start to the second half by Mississippi State essentially put things out of reach for the Commodores, but Vanderbilt did not quit. The Bulldogs began the final 20 minutes of play on a 9-4 run to take a 19-point lead — the team’s largest advantage of the afternoon.
Vanderbilt, who had really struggled to score against Chris Jans’ tight defense, found new life with just over 15 minutes left in the contest. Commodores forward Ven-Allen Lubin fueled his team on an 11-3 run to cut the deficit to 11, but it was simply not enough.
Though Vanderbilt hung around and hit a few shots to keep things competitive, Mississippi State never surrendered its double-digit lead in the second half and went on to record the 68-55 win over the SEC counterpart.
Neither team shot particularly well as MSU was 43% from the floor and 29% from behind the arc which was slightly better than Vanderbilt’s 38% field goal shooting and 22% from three. Both squads were rough from the free-throw line. MSU was 54.5% from the charity stripe compared to Vanderbilt’s 55.6%.
The biggest difference between both teams on Saturday came in rebounding. Mississippi State won the rebounding battle 45-33 and hauled in six more boards on the offensive side of the court.
Smith accounted for nearly 40% of the Bulldogs’ scoring in a double-double performance with 25 points and 11 rebounds. Hubbard had 11 points and D.J. Jeffries posted 10.
Next up for Mississippi State is a Wednesday night battle at Florida. That game will tip off at 7:30 p.m. central.
