Coming off three-straight losses, Mississippi State was desperate and hungry for a victory.

After a difficult and frustrating two weeks, the Bulldogs let out that frustration with an absolute bludgeoning of Iowa State, 95-56, in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge.

“I thought we came out and played really hard, as hard as we’ve played all year,” Ben Howland said postgame. “I thought our defense was outstanding. D.J. Stewart’s two threes in a row, back to-back threes, kind of broke the game open for us, and we never looked back.”

The game’s early going was ugly but mostly dominated by Mississippi State. The Bulldogs held on to a nine-point lead through the first 10 minutes of the contest before, as Howland mentioned, D.J. Stewart drained two-consecutive threes to give MSU a 15-point cushion. State scored 16 points in under eight minutes to take a 44-28 lead at the break.

The 2nd half was all Bulldogs, as State put up 31 points in the first 10 minutes of the stanza to start on a 31-11 run. MSU wouldn’t let off the gas, scoring 51 points in the 2nd half to outscore the Cyclones by 23 in the period.

Iverson Molinar and D.J. Stewart led State with 20 and 17 points, respectively, along with 16 from Tolu Smith and 10 from Deivon Smith.

“I thought Deivon did a great job today,” Howland stated. “You look at him, 10 points and nine assists; this was his best game as a Bulldog. I was excited about that. I thought D.J. was fantastic, Iverson too; they really did a great job for us offensively. Tolu was very good, especially starting the 2nd half.”

A crippling liability for Mississippi State this season has been turnovers, but tonight, it was flipped. The Bulldogs committed only 10 turnovers while forcing 21 for Iowa State, resulting in 34 points for MSU.

“I thought we were good with the ball,” Howland said. “We were playing against zone defense quite a bit and did a good job attacking that. I was really pleased with some of the performances today, especially Deivon Smith, who had nine assists and only one turnover. He did a great job moving the ball. D.J. also had five assists and zero turnovers. Those two guys had 14 assists between them and only one turnover.”

Mississippi State improves to 10-9, 4-5 on the year and will travel to Arkansas on Tuesday with a massive win under their belt.

“This definitely gives us confidence going into our next conference game,” Deivon Smith said. “I feel like this is going to keep leading on throughout our next games, just playing hard. It was great getting this win.”