Men’s basketball improves to 4-1
Jesse Brackeen / Intern Writer
The Mean Green men’s basketball team defeated Mississippi Valley State University 67-52 Wednesday night at the Super Pit.
The Mean Green (4-1) started off slowly once again, and was unable to muster much offensively against Mississippi Valley’s full court press defense.
“For whatever reason we started out slow, we couldn’t get stops,” head coach Tony Benford said. “We have to do a better job coming out of half time getting stops and executing on the offensive end.”
Despite the slow start, the Mean Green outrebounded Mississippi Valley 23-15 in the first half and also outshot the Delta Devils 52 percent to 29 percent to take a 41-27 lead into halftime. Senior forward Colin Voss led the way early scoring eight points and grabbing five rebounds in the first half.
Following an injury to junior guard Carrington Ward, senior guards T.J. Taylor and Jordan Williams played extended minutes as the Mean Green searched to find a rhythm. Taylor filled in at point guard and said he was still getting used to running the offense.
“I just got to knock the rust off,” Taylor said. “I felt comfortable playing, whatever it takes to win.”
Williams said he credits the slow start in the first half to apathy towards the opposition, but the team will get better as it develops chemistry.
“I think we took the other team for granted, I think we will be ready Friday,” Williams said. “I think after the first half we had thought we had won the game already and we were going through the motions, not going as hard as we should.”
The second half started slowly again as it took the Mean Green four minutes to score its first points. Turnovers and poor free throw shooting provided a low scoring second half as the Mean Green had 20 turnovers and shot 50 percent from the free throw line for the game.
“We cannot have 20 turnovers. We just threw the ball off of our legs, we threw it all over the place,” Benford said. “Give them credit, they played hard but we were beating ourselves. 20 turnovers, I think that’s the most now, most on the season. We have to do a better job taking care of the basketball”
The Mean Green ended up shooting 39.1 percent from the field in the second half, but held Mississippi Valley to 23.5 percent in the half to get the win. Voss and Junior forward Muhammed Ahmed combined for 25 points and 17 rebounds to help the Mean Green outscore the Delta Devils 34-18 in the paint.
Next up, the Mean Green will travel to play the No. 25 ranked University of Arkansas on Friday. Tipoff is set for 8 p.m.
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