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STARKVILLE, Miss. – Mississippi State’s Arnett Moultrie led all players with 28 points and 13 rebounds and the Bulldogs scored 23 second-chance points in an 80-65 men’s basketball win Saturday afternoon at Humphrey Coliseum.

Mississippi State improves to 2-1 on the year while South Alabama drops its season opener.

“Mississippi State is a very explosive team,” said USA head coach Ronnie Arrow. “They are much quicker and they get up and down the floor really well. If you don’t put a butt on them then they are going to control the offensive boards. We worked all week on guarding Moultrie. He is really a good offensive rebounder.”

Seven of Moultrie’s rebounds came on the offensive glass and he scored 18 points in the second half alone. He was one of four Bulldogs in double-digit scoring. Dee Bost had 16 points and seven rebounds, Rodney Hood added 15 points and Brian Bryant added 10.

Wendell Lewis hauled in six of his eight boards on the offensive end and recorded three blocks.

For the Jaguars, sophomore Augustine Rubit (Houston, Texas) posted 16 points and freshman Mychal Ammons (Vicksburg, Miss.) contributed 15 off the bench. Both players grabbed nine rebounds each.

“Mychal is a very good player,” said Arrow. “We’ve asked him to step out of his natural habitat—he played inside all through high school—and he’s getting better and better every game at it. We saw a taste of what he could be and what he is.”

Junior Freddie Goldstein (Milwaukee, Wis.) tallied 11 points, thanks to three 3-pointers.

Mississippi State seized control early on the back of a 19-0 run. After an Ammons dunk gave USA an 11-9 advantage, Hood answered on the other end with a jumper to tie the score. The Jaguars turned the ball over on their next possession and Jalen Steele took advantage of an offensive rebound with a jump shot of his own to give the Bulldogs the lead for the final time.

South Alabama missed its next nine shots while Mississippi State made seven of its 10 field goal attempts. Hood capped off the run of 19 unanswered points with a trifecta.

MSU stretched its lead to as many as 18 early in the second half, but USA persevered and reeled off seven consecutive points midway through the period to close to 11. Junior Trey Anderson (Carrollton, Texas) hit a jumper with 10:02 left and Ammons hit a ‘3’ on the Jags’ next trip down the court.

With 7:24 to play in the contest, Lundy tipped in a miss to bring the Jags to within 11 (68-57), their closest deficit since the 11:38 mark of the first half. But a Moultrie put-back on Mississippi State’s next possession and a Bost basket after a South Alabama miss gave the Bulldogs a 15-point lead.

Rubit hit back-to-back jumpers to pull back to 11, 72-61 with 5:12 to play, but MSU scored eight of the next 10 points and cruised the rest of the way.

“The things we said we had to do before the game we didn’t do,” said Arrow. “We had to keep them off the boards and be patient. We didn’t do either one of those. We only had four assists in the first half and we have been averaging 14 a game. Their defense took us out of what we wanted to do.”

South Alabama returns home Wednesday and hosts Mobile at 7:05 p.m.

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/USAJaguarSports. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).

—USA—