STARKVILLE — The Mississippi State men’s basketball team has little time to celebrate it latest victory.
Coming off a 26-point victory Friday against the University of Tennessee at Martin, No. 24 MSU will play host to the University of North Texas at 1:30 p.m. today at Humphrey Coliseum.
Tickets can be purchased at a special price of $5.
The Bulldogs (6-1) have won five in a row and are looking to start a season 7-1 for the first time since 2003-04, when they won the Southeastern Conference regular-season crown.
On Friday, MSU defeated UT-Martin 76-50 without starting junior forwards Arnett Moultrie and Renardo Sidney, who continue to nurse injuries. In that outing, MSU shot a season-best 59.3 percent (32 of 54) from the field and were led in scoring by Dee Bost and Rodney Hood with 17 points each.
Bost, the All-SEC standout, continues to lead MSU in scoring at 16.9 points.
“We shot nearly 70 percent in the second half, and we didn’t turn the ball over that much in that half, either,” MSU coach Rick Stansbury said. “For the most part, I thought we played hard. That doesn’t mean we always played good, but we played hard and that is all that you can ask for.”
North Texas enters the contest 1-2 following a 97-64 setback Wednesday at Texas-Arlington.
The Mean Green is led in scoring by freshman standout guard Chris Jones’s 18.3 clip, the seventh highest total in the country by a freshman. Earlier this year, he poured in 31 points against Texas Tech, the fifth highest total by a freshman in school history.
North Texas is the third Sun Belt Conference foe MSU has faced this year. MSU has defeated South Alabama (85-70) and Louisiana-Monroe (78-63). In December, MSU will play league members Troy and Florida Atlantic.
This will be the second meeting between the schools, as the Bulldogs claimed a 66-65 victory in December of 1972 at the Pacemaker Classic in Monroe, La.
MSU is off until Dec. 3, when it will play host to West Virginia at 8 p.m. (ESPNU) in the Big East/SEC Challenge.
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