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No. 25 Mississippi State cruises past Nicholls on its way to 6-0

IMG_4594by: Tanner Marlar11/24/23tanner_marlar

The Mississippi State Bulldogs men’s basketball squad continued their hot start to the 2023-24 season and notched their sixth win on Black Friday against Nicholls State 74-61.

Josh Hubbard led all scorers with 15 points while Dashawn Davis had a team high four assists. Jimmy Bell led all Bulldogs with 10 rebounds on the way to his third double double of the season with 11 points to boot.

The zone defenses that Nicholls threw at Mississippi State gave the Bulldogs some problems in the first half, but their defensive efforts promptly made up for their poor shooting in the first period as MSU took a 36-24 lead into the locker rooms.

Cameron Matthews opened up the second half with a thunderous two handed dunk off an alley-oop, and the rout was on. Head coach Chris Jans spoke about the play itself, but also the freedom his players had to have some fun with it after the game.

“It was a designed play,” said Jans, “but the lob/dunk part of it they did on their own. It was a designed play to get the positions that were available on the court, the cut and the slide on the right side, but the lob opened up and they took advantage of it.”

Mississippi State Getting Healthy

Mississippi State took another step towards getting everybody healthy on Friday as well with the addition of forward KeShawn Murphy to the lineup. Murphy, a 6-foot-10 redshirt sophomore, will provide the Mississippi State front court with some much needed floor spacing when he is back in game shape. He finished with six points, two rebounds and two assists.

Jans said that Murphy had a special day and was back before any of the staff expected. Fans greeted Murphy with a standing ovation when he first checked in, and Jans thought that it might have been because it was his birthday.

“We’ve got a good fan base, and they get it,” said Jans. “I didn’t really think about it until I subbed him in that they would react like that, but it was certainly awesome to see. I just thought they knew it was his birthday…I thought maybe there was something on the board…he’s such a nice kid, a fun loving kid…he just gets along with everybody and he’s a heck of a basketball player.”

The Mississippi State mens’ next game will be on Tuesday when they face Georgia Tech in a road matchup in Atlanta. Tipoff is scheduled for 6 p.m.

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