Mississippi State men’s basketball routs Montana 86-49

STARKVILLE, Miss. — The Mississippi State men’s basketball team dominated Montana from start to finish en route to an 86-49 win Saturday night inside Humphrey Coliseum.

With the win, the Bulldogs improve to 2-0, while the Grizzlies fall to 1-1.

Junior guard Iverson Molinar led the way for the Bulldogs with 16 points and added seven rebounds and six assists.

Sophomore guard Shakeel Moore and junior forward D.J. Jeffries added 15 points apiece, while sophomore forward Cameron Matthews finished with 11 points and transfer forward Garrison Brooks added nine points to go with a game-high 11 rebounds. Brooks’ 11 rebounds were part of a dominating 47-28 rebounding advantage for the Bulldogs.

As a team, MSU shot 32-for-61 (52.5%) from the field and 13-for-23 (56.5%) from 3-point range. The Bulldogs held Montana to 16-for-55 (29.1%) shooting, including 9-for-31 (29.0%) from beyond the arc.

Junior forward Derrick Carter-Hollinger led the way for the Grizzlies with 11 points, while Junior guard Josh Vazquez finished with 10.

After Montana jumped out to a 2-0 lead, MSU made the next 13 points, with Matthews scoring eight of those points to go up 13-2 with 13:15 left in the first half.

MSU kept up the pace the rest of the half and wound up scoring 13 of the last 15 points of the half to go into the halftime break leading 42-16.

The Bulldogs then scored the first 13 points of the second half to take a 55-16 with 17:13 to play. MSU led by as many as 42 points before going on to win 86-49.

Up next, the Bulldogs host Detroit Mercy on Wednesday at 7 p.m. CT on SEC Network+.