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Mississippi State sweeps season rivalry vs. Ole Miss with impressive road victory
By Paul Harvey
Published:
Mississippi State is looking for its 3rd straight NCAA Tournament appearance under head coach Chris Jans. But before that, the Bulldogs are looking to finish off a strong year in the SEC.
On Saturday, that included the 2nd installment of the Mississippi State vs. Ole Miss rivalry series this season. MSU pulled out an 84-81 win at home earlier this season, meaning the Bulldogs were looking for a season sweep in Oxford Saturday night.
In reality, MSU was even better in the road matchup of the rivalry series than the first game against the Rebels. The Bulldogs had a 40-33 lead at halftime and pushed their lead all the way to 19 points with 8:16 left in the 2nd half.
From there, Jans’s group was able to cruise to the 81-71 win behind a game-high 17 points from RJ Melendez. He led 5 MSU players in double figures as the Bulldogs improved to 6-6 in the tough SEC. Jaylen Murray led Ole Miss with 14 points in the defeat.
With the win, Mississippi State is now 5-1 against Ole Miss under Jans and 3-1 head-to-head against Chris Beard since he took over at the start of last season. Now, the Bulldogs will try to improve their final seeding for the NCAA Tournament but are safely projected into the final field. MSU will get 2 games against top-10 opponents — vs. Texas A&M and at Alabama — before the end of the season to try and register a marquee upset.
Paul Harvey lives in Atlanta and covers SEC football.
