University of Richmond
Mississippi St
Men's Basketball Drops 71-57 Decision to Mississippi State
12/05/2001 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 5, 2001
UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND, Va.-- The Mississippi State Bulldogs improved to 7-0 on the season besting the Richmond Spiders (3-2), 71-57 in a non-conference game on Wednesday evening at the Robins Center on the campus of the University of Richmond.
The two squads swapped buckets in the first 20 minutes with neither leading by more than eight and with the lead changing eight times. A Patrick O'Malley (Charleston, W.Va./George Washington) tap in at the 4:15 mark capped off a 10-2 Richmond run and gave the Spiders an eight-point advantage (28-20). The Bulldogs would quickly answer scoring two baskets, both courtesy of senior guard Marckell Patterson, and two free throws from sophomore center Mario Austin in just over a minute to cut the deficit to two. The Spiders pushed the lead back to four after sophomore Tony Dobbins (Mitchellville, Md./Va. Tech) added two of his 11 first-half points just before the half, an alley-opp from a baseline throw-in to push the lead back to four (32-28) at the break.
Richmond junior guard Reggie Brown's (Flushing, N.Y./Archbishop Molloy) coast-to-coast layup with 17:39 remaining gave the Spiders a six-point lead. The Bulldogs would answer going on a 24-10 run to take over the lead and keep it. Austin accounted for 10 of Mississippi State's 24 points during the 12-minute run. The Spiders could get no closer than five points in the final five minutes as trips to the free throw line pushed the lead to double digits in the last two minutes. For the fifth time this season the Bulldogs shot better than 50 percent, recording a field goal percentage of 54.2 for the game (71.4 in the second half).
Dobbins paced the Spiders for the fourth straight game, scoring 16 points and adding seven rebounds. Junior center Eric Zwayer added 13. The Bulldogs saw a quartet of players notch double figures. Led by Austin and Patterson's 14 points apiece, junior Derrick Zimmerman added 13 while forward Michael Gholar had 11. The loss marks the first time since December 1999 that Richmond has dropped two consecutive at home.
Richmond travels to the Queen City on Saturday to face the Charlotte 49ers while Mississippi State entertains Arkansas State at home in Starkville, Miss.
