STARKVILLE — The Mississippi State’s men’s basketball team allowed Troy University to pick how it wanted to lose Saturday.
No. 17 MSU (9-1) was nearly flawless in full- and half-court offense in a 106-68 victory at Humphrey Coliseum.
MSU’s start is its best since it started 13-0 to open the 2003-04 campaign.
“It was just one of those days,” MSU coach Rick Stansbury said. “We got enough balance on this team right now that we can become efficient either way. One of greatest advantages in every game is our versatility.”
Troy tried at the outset to use its run-and-gun system that had it leading the nation in 3-pointers per game. But MSU was up to the task, tying a school record with 16 3-pointers, shooting 56.3 percent (40 of 71) from the field, and handing out a season-high 30 assists. The 30 assists were four shy of the school record set in 1975 against Chicago State.
Troy was 8 of 35 from beyond the arc.
“The two good things about this game for us — the first 10 minutes of the second half and the fact that it is over,” Troy coach Don Maestri said. “We’re supposed to be the good outside shooting team, but that went to Mississippi State as well.”
Troy (4-5) decided to slow the tempo midway through the first half and make it a half-court game, but MSU capitalized on its significant size advantage and used a 31-9 run to build a 28-point halftime lead.
Arnett Moultrie, a 6-foot-10 forward who was asked to guard perimeter
players seven and eight inches smaller than him, scored 20 points and
had 12 rebounds for his fifth double-doubles of the season.
“I’m really comfortable guarding smaller guards, even in our man-to man defense when we switch off screens,” Moultrie said. “I feel like I can move my feet and make them still shoot over me even though people think they’ll be quicker than me.”
Moultrie has scored 20 or more points three-straight times, marking the first time a MSU player has done that since Ravern Johnson last season.
Wooden Award finalist Dee Bost led all scorers with 28 points. He scored several ways, tied his career-high with seven 3-pointers, had nine assists, and ran the perfect tempo.
“He’s an NBA player, and that’s just what Rick has with Dee Bost right now,” Maestri said.
MSU’s starting five of Bost, Moultrie, Rodney Hood, Renardo Sidney, and Jalen Steele accounted for 93 of the team’s 106 points. The last time the Bulldogs broke the century mark was a 105-54 victory in Dec. 5, 2009.
Steele, who was in the starting lineup due to a university-mandated suspension of senior guard Brian Bryant, had 15 points to give him double-digit scoring in three-straight games for the first time in his career.
“It was about extra, extra work after practice to get shots up because I know this will be the role for me on this team,” Steele said.
Sidney looked lethargic on both ends of the floor but followed with short stretches of an energetic force. After receiving a technical foul in the first half, the former McDonald’s All-American responded with a 3-pointer and a power dunk over a defender.
Maestri, a 32-year coaching veteran and was an assistant on the MSU staff in 1979-80, said he felt like he’d played one of the most talented team’s in the country and saw one of the best freshman in the nation in Hood.
“He can just shoot the ball better than his dad when I coached him right here,” Maestri said. “His dad wasn’t as good as Rodney was as a freshman. He’s way ahead of the curve. After the game I told him, ‘You’re better looking than your dad and you’re a better player’, and he just smiled.”
MSU will return to action at 8 p.m. Tuesday (CSS) when it plays host to Florida Atlantic. FAU beat MSU 61-59 on Nov. 30, 2010.
“Our focus against anybody has to be that we’re playing the number one team in the country,” Bost said. “That (loss against FAU in Starkville last year) seems like a long, long time ago, though.”
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