Two bum knees couldn’t slow down Arnett Moultrie, who scored 20 points and led Mississippi State to a 82-59 win over North Texas at Humphrey Coliseum.

Mississippi State (7-1) won its fifth straight game and is 7-1 for the first time since the 2003-04 season, when it won the SEC regular-season title.

North Texas (1-3) is now 0-2 all-time versus Mississippi State, with the first meeting coming in 1972.

The Bulldogs broke the game open with a 22-3 run midway through the first half, sparked by momentum-shifting dunks from Wendell Lewis and Moultrie, who returned to action despite nagging tendonitis. He scored 14 of his 20 points in the first half.

Mississippi State shot 63 percent from the floor and hit 6 of 12 3-point attempts in the first half to deliver an early knockout punch. The Bulldogs hit 47.4 percent of its shots from beyond the arc, including three triples from Dee Bost, who finished with 18 points.

The Mean Green were just 8 for 25 from the field in the first half and hit just 32 percent of their shots. Freshman standout Chris Jones led the team with 12 points while fellow first-year star Jordan Williams struggled, scoring 10 points on 3-for-12 shooting.

Renardo Sidney was also back on the floor for Mississippi State after sitting out Friday with a wrist injury. He chipped in with nine points.