Bulldogs Top Razorbacks

STARKVILLE, Miss. — The Mississippi State men’s basketball team came away with a 77-70 win over Arkansas Wednesday night at Humphrey Coliseum.

With the win, the Bulldogs improve to 12-6 (3-3 SEC), while the Razorbacks fall to 14-4 (3-3 SEC).

The Bulldogs held an early 9-3 lead, but the Razorbacks managed to knot things up at 11-11 with 11:32 to play in the first half.

The score remained tight the rest of the half, but a 9-0 run by MSU allowed the Bulldogs to take a 28-22 lead with just over a minute to play in the first stanza.

The Bulldogs held a 30-26 lead at the half.

State shot 10-of-33 (30.3%) in the first half compared to 12-of-28 (42.9%) by Arkansas, but the Bulldogs were 6-of-7 from the charity stripe.

Arkansas closed in within two points early in the second half when a 3-pointer made it 35-33, but MSU scored the next six points to extend the lead to 41-33.

The Razorbacks would claw their way back to within three points twice more in the contest, but that’s as close as they’d get, and the Bulldogs went on to win 77-70.

Despite being the bigger team, the Bulldogs were outscored 46-24 inside the paint, but a big difference in the game was the fact that the Bulldogs shot 27-of-31 (87.1%) from the free-throw line compared to 6-of-11 (54.5%) by Arkansas.

As a whole, State shot 22-of-57 (38.6%) from the field, including 6-of-19 (31.5%) from 3-point range. Arkansas shot 30-of-63 (47.6%) for the game, including 4-of-20 (20.0%) from 3-point range

The Bulldogs, led by sophomore forward Reggie Perry with 13, held a 41-31 rebounding advantage.

Perry finished with a conference play career-high 26 points to go with the 13 boards for his 11th double-double of the season and seventh in the last eight games.

Freshman guard D.J. Stewart Jr. scored 14 points in the game, which makes the Bulldogs 8-0 when Stewart scores in double figures. Junior guard Nick Weatherspoon chipped in with 11 points and six assists, while senior guard Tyson Carter added 10 points.

The Bulldogs will now travel to Oklahoma City to face the Oklahoma Sooners on Saturday. Tip time is scheduled for 1 p.m. CT and will be televised by ESPN2.