Mississippi State cruised to another victory tonight, defeating Omaha 74-54 to improve to 7-0.

The Bulldogs were without their two points guards Rams Davis and Jamel Horton, and it caused them to take a different approach offensively. Davis has been dealing with an ankle injury since the season opener, and tonight was a scheduled rest for him, while Horton is day-to-day, according to Chris Jans.

In their absence, forward D.J. Jeffries was given the Bulldogs' offense, and he did a solid job scoring 10 points and committing only two turnovers despite the high usage rate. The Mississippi State offense struggled in the first half as they led just 31-24, but Jeffries drilled a three before the halftime buzzer to put them up ten and give them some momentum in the 2nd half.

"He's comfortable with the ball in his hands and I would say from the naked eye he did a pretty good job," Jans said. "He kept us organized. He was communicating with me more than normal. He would try to be an extension of me which is one of the responsibilities of the point guard in our system. I would say he did a pretty good job."

Jeffries got the Bulldogs going with another three-pointer on State's first possession of the 2nd half. The offense woke up, and combined with Mississippi State's stellar defense, they went on a 17-0 run to get their lead over 20 points.

It was the usual cast of characters for Mississippi State as Tolu Smith tallied 12 points while Cameron Matthews and Eric Reed Jr. added nine. The Bulldogs did most of their work on the inside, scoring 40 points in the paint, and they shot 62% on layups and dunks.

While Mississippi State had a solid defensive showing holding Omaha to 54 points, Chris Jans expects better from his team. The Mavericks shot 40.7% from the field, which was only the 2nd time a team shot over 40% against Mississippi State this season, as forward Frankie Fidler and guard Tony Osburn scored ten a piece.

"Overall, I was fairly disappointed with our defensive numbers," Jans said. "They weren't as good as what I thought they would be going into the game after watching Omaha on film. I thought we could have a little more of a dominating defensive performance."

What the Bulldogs did do well on the defensive end was create turnovers, as the Mavericks turned it over 18 times. It helped generate 18 points off of turnovers and tied a season-high 17 fastbreak points.

One of the beneficiaries was Keyshawn Murphy, who saw some increased playing time with 17 minutes of action. The redshirt freshman forward scored a career-high eight points on 4-6 shooting. More importantly, Murphy blocked three shots, including one at the three-point line that he took coast-to-coast for a nifty euro-step finish.

"He (Coach Jans) knew I was a good offensive player. He knew defense was gonna be a little struggle for me, so all summer and every practice I worked on defense," Murphy said. When he came here, he talked about a lot of defense. No offense, because he knew offense would come. When he came here, he told me if you want to play, you got to be defense."

Mississippi State will look to continue to stay undefeated as they'll host Mississippi Valley State in The Hump on Saturday.