Mississippi State men’s basketball set to host Texas State in home opener

STARKVILLE, Miss. — The Mississippi State men’s basketball team will play host to Texas State in its 2020-21 home opener Monday at 7 p.m. CT inside Humphrey Coliseum. The game will be televised by SEC Network.

Mississippi State (0-2) opened the season with a pair of losses last week in the Space Coast Challenge. The Bulldogs fell to Clemson 53-42 before falling 84-73 to Liberty in the consolation game.

Texas State (2-0) has beaten Mary Hardin-Baylor and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi so far this season.

The Bulldogs own a 67-19 home record and have won 37 of their 41 nonconference home games during head coach Ben Howland’s five years at MSU.

Monday’s meeting is the first between Mississippi State and Texas State on the hardwood.

MSU is led by redshirt sophomore forward Tolu Smith and redshirt sophomore guard D.J. Stewart, who are both averaging 16 points. Smith is also MSU’s top rebounder with 8.5 rebounds per game.

The Bobcats are averaging 86.5 points per game and are led by junior guard Mason Harrell with 16.5 points per game. He is shooting 56.5% from the floor and 50.0% from 3-point range.