Mississippi State men’s basketball rolls past Georgia State 79-50

STARKVILLE, Miss. — Junior guard Iverson Molinar scored 18 points, junior forward D.J. Jeffries scored 15, sophomore forward Derek Fountain scored 10 and the Mississippi State Bulldogs defeated Georgia State 79-50 Tuesday night at Humphrey Coliseum.

With the win, the Bulldogs improve to 7-3, while the Panthers fall to 5-4.

MSU shot 24-for-44 (54.5%) from the field, including 5-for-10 (50%) from 3-point land. The Bulldogs also shot 26-for-30 (86.7%) from the free-throw line and controlled the boards with a 41-27 rebounding advantage.

The Bulldogs held Georgia State to 20-for-61 (32.8%) shooting. The Panthers made just 4-for-10 (40%) from the charity stripe.

With the score 8-6, MSU used an 8-0 run to go up 14-8 with 14:28 left in the first half. The Bulldogs closed out the first half on a 16-4 run to lead 43-22 at the halftime break.

A jumper by sophomore guard Shakeel Moore to open the second half made it 45-22 before Georgia State went on an 8-0 run to make it 45-30 with 16:34 left to play. MSU responded with a 14-0 run of its own to push its lead to 61-33 with 10:02 left.

The Panthers would get no closer than 24 points the rest of the way as the Bulldogs went on to win 79-50 and ended their two-game skid.

The Bulldogs will return to action Friday when they host Furman at 6 p.m. CT on SEC Network.