Mississippi State 75, Saint Louis 50: Travis Daniels scored 21 pionts and grabbed six rebounds to lead the Bulldogs to an easy win in the Corpus Christi Coastal Classic semifinals.
Gavin Ware added 16 points, five rebounds and three blocks for Mississippi State (5-0), which will face TCU in the tournament's championship game Saturday. Fred Thomas added 14 points off the bench for the Bulldogs, who shot 55.6 percent from the field.
Austin McBroom led Saint Louis (3-2) with 10 points, though he shot 4-of-13 from the field. Achraf Yacoubou added eight points while Milik Yarbrough chipped in seven points.
Mississippi State jumped out quickly, hitting a trio of 3-pointers in the first three minutes to open up a nine-point lead, and extended the advantage to 13 six minutes into the contest. The lead went up to 18 with 5:28 to go on Daniels' 3-pointer, though the Billikens closed the half on a 9-1 run to cut the deficit to 10 at the break.
Saint Louis got it down to seven with a little more than three minutes gone in the second half, but Mississippi State responded with an 18-2 run over the next eight minutes to put the game away. The Bulldogs got the lead to as much as 29 before settling for the final margin.
GAME NOTEBOOK: Mississippi State dominated the boards, outrebounding Saint Louis 39-24. … The Bulldogs hit 8-of-17 from 3-point range, while the Billikens were 5-of-20 from beyond the arc. … Saint Louis will face Bradley in the Saturday's third-place game.
Mississippi St. | Saint Louis | |
Travis Daniels 21 | Scoring | Austin McBroom 10 |
I.J. Ready 5 | Assists | Marcus Bartley 2 |
Travis Daniels 6 | Rebounds | Austin McBroom 3 |
Fred Thomas 3 | Free Throws Made | Reggie Agbeko 2 |
Trivante Bloodman 1 | Steals | Austin McBroom 2 |
Gavin Ware 3 | Blocks | Brett Jolly 1 |
Team | Points | FG% | 3PM-3PA | FTM-FTA | Assists | Rebounds | Blocks | Steals | Turnovers |
Mississippi St. | 75 | 55.6 | 8-17 | 7-9 | 17 | 36 | 5 | 4 | 14 |
Saint Louis | 50 | 36.4 | 5-20 | 5-13 | 4 | 22 | 3 | 4 | 11 |