Box Score UNO-MSU Box Score
STARKVILLE, Miss. – New Orleans dropped its fourth contest in a row, falling to Mississippi State 97-46 on Thursday night at Humphrey Coliseum.
Colin Borchert scored 11 of his 17 points in the first half as MSU (5-7) built up a 28-point advantage in the game's first 20 minutes. Three other players reached double-figures for the Bulldogs in the contest, led by Jalen Steele and Fred Thomas with 16 points apiece.
The loss was the fourth during the current stretch of six games away from Lakefront Arena for UNO (3-9).
"We are frustrated we did not play better, we were frustrated that we did not match their energy early on and dug ourselves a big hole," said Privateer head coach
Mark Slessinger. "This was not a game that served as a good picture of who we are as program."
Kevin Hill and
Lovell Cook scored seven points apiece to lead UNO which received a career-high nine rebounds from
Eddie Denard.
Cook bounced back from a scoreless opening half to score all seven of his points in the second half. Ranked in the top 25 nationally in field goal percentage, Cook was 0-for-3 in the first half and 3-for-4 in the second half.
The Privateers followed Cook's lead by rebounding from a 25.9 percent performance in the game's opening half to shoot 41.7 percent from the field in the second half.
The effort was too late for the guests as MSU set the tone early and continued to find success from the floor by shooting at a 56.5 percent clip for the contest. The effort included a 11 of 21 performance from beyond the arc.
The Bulldogs made four of their first five attempts from the field en route to scoring the game's first 12 points. On the defensive end, MSU did not concede a basket until
Rarlensee Nelson connected from the field with 14:45 remaining until the half.
The lead for the Bulldogs reached a first half high of 28 points at 41-13 with 3:46 remaining before the intermission. UNO held the hosts to a single field goal from that point until the half and coupled with a
Evans Ganapamo three-pointer, entered the break trailing 43-16.
To begin the second half, the Privateers outscored the MSU 7-1, holding the squad without a field goal for the first 3:43 after the intermission. The Bulldogs snapped out of the funk by scoring 17 straight points to push their advantage over 30 points for the first time.
MSU cruised through the final buzzer, staking their largest lead of the game at 52 points with 43 seconds remaining in the game.
With Thursday's contest behind them, UNO will visit historic Hinkle Fieldhouse for a showdown on Saturday at 1 p.m. CT against No. 17 Butler. The trip to Indianapolis is the program's first since the 1993 NCAA Midwest Regional.
NOTES
UNO's Traddarius McPhearson and MSU's Colin Borchert played together at East Mississippi CC. McPhearson – the Privateers' lone Mississippi native – had a large contingent of family and friends sitting behind the visiting bench.
Eddie Denard had a career-high nine rebounds, narrowly missing the double-digit mark. The last player to pull down 10 or more rebounds in a game was
Antonio Wertz on Feb. 18, 2012 against Southern-New Orleans. Wertz had 10 rebounds in the game against SUNO.
Benjamin James made his 2012-13 debut in the contest after missing the first 11 games of the season. James appeared in 17 games during the 2011-12 season, averaging 1.2 points per contest.
