Starkville, MS- Mississippi State rolled past Missouri tonight winning 68-49, snapping a 4-game losing streak for the Bulldogs. Mississippi State moves to 6-7 in the SEC and 15-11 overall while Missouri falls to 4-9 in conference and 10-16 overall.

The Bulldogs got out a bit of a cold start, as they were tied 7-7, 7 minutes into the game, but Andersson Garcia energized them with 2 steals and 2 fastbreak scores in a span of 20 seconds.

“He gave us a huge lift in the first half,” said Head Coach Ben Howland.

After that it was no looking back as they outscored them 27-16 for the rest of the first half.

The second half went much the same as Mississippi State was in cruise control the rest of the way, playing great defense, they held Missouri to just 49 points and a 31.3% field goal percentage.

Iverson Molinar saw a lot of double teams, but still had an efficient day scoring 13 points on 5-6 shooting. State however was still able to get big contributions elsewhere, as Tolu Smith had a bounce back game scoring 16, D.J. Jeffries had 12 with 5 assists, and Garrison Brooks had 10 with 7 rebounds.

The Bulldogs also had a nice contribution off the bench as Andersson Garcia had 7 points and 8 rebounds, Javian Davis had 6, and Shakeel Moore, while still in a bit of a shooting slump, dished out 4 assists and recorded 2 steals.

Ronnie DeGray III led Missouri with 13 points and Javon Pickett added 11, however they both shot below 40% from the field.

It was an efficient night for the Bulldogs as they shot 49% from the field and assisted 16 times with just 9 turnovers.

These 2 teams will match up again on Sunday, this time in Columbia, MO.