Nick Arthur -
Arnett Moultrie led all
scorers with 21 points while leading No. 24 Mississippi State to a 75-62
victory over West Virginia on Saturday night.
Moultrie also had 12
rebounds.
The Bulldogs held the
Mountaineers to 11 percent shooting from 3-point range, and West Virginia fell
to 4-2 on the season.
"This is frustrating, because I really thought we could come
in here and win, and we didn't," said West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins.
Senior forward and leading
scorer Kevin Jones was in foul trouble throughout the game and forced Huggins
to play Jones sparingly.
"The truth is, Kevin Jones
can't get in foul trouble, he did. Kevin can't go 0-of-6 from three, he did,"
Huggins said. "Those are things we're not good enough to overcome."
In its first road test of
the season, West Virginia started slowly. Turnovers and poor shooting allowed
Mississippi State to jump out to an early 10-4 lead.
The Mountaineers trailed
19-13 when Kevin Jones picked up his second foul with 11 minutes remaining in
the first half.
During Jones' stint on the
bench, the Bulldogs extended their lead to 25-15 behind great play from guard
Dee Bost.
However, Jones reentered
the game with eight minutes remaining in the half, scored five points and
immediately sparked a 7-0 West Virginia run.
Jones picked up his third
foul later in the first half.
But, the Mountaineers were
able to overcome the slow start, and only trailed Mississippi State 34-32 at
the half.
West Virginia was forced
to start the second half with Jones on the bench.
"When you have some of
those freshmen in too long, they get tired and they maybe can't fight through
things that Kevin (Jones) could."
The Mountaineers once
again performed well with Jones in foul trouble. They kept the game close
because of solid play from junior forward Deniz Kililci.
Kilicli's layup with 10
minutes left to play tied the game at 50 apiece.
Jones picked up his fourth
foul with eight minutes remaining.
Mississippi State took advantage.
The Bulldogs went on a 17-7 run and led 67-57 with 2:13 left to play in the
game.
The run by the home team
proved to be too much to overcome for the young Mountaineers.
"We can't not do right and
win. We had chances," Huggins said. "We just have to get better, and that's my
job to make sure they get better."
Freshmen Pat Forsythe and
Kevin Noreen both provided a spark off the bench for the Mountaineers inside.
West Virginia had its best
game from the free-thrown line on Saturday. The Mountaineers were 14-of-20.
West Virginia as a team
struggled offensively. With only 6 assists on 23 field goals, it was apparent
the visitors failed to establish any rhythm.
"We didn't pass the ball,"
Huggins said. "When you keep it on one side of the floor, even bad teams have
help."
"You can't continue to the
same kind of things and be successful," Huggins said. "We just got to do a
better job of running an offense."
Senior guard Truck Bryant
had a rough shooting night. Bryant finished 5-of-15 from the floor.
"KJ and Truck have to
become for consistent for us, they have to do more things right," Huggins said.
"They have to do it all the time. The other guys are going to screw things up."
Next Thursday night, West
Virginia will travel to Wichita, Kan. to take on Kansas State
Coach Huggins knows his
work will be cut out for him.
"In the meantime, we've
got to get a whole lot better," he said.
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