STARKVILLE, Miss. – After opening with a pair of victories at home, the Southeastern Louisiana University men's basketball team plays its first road game of the season when it faces SEC member Mississippi State Thursday at Humphrey Coliseum.
Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. No radio will be available for the contest due to the Southeastern-Nicholls State football game, scheduled to kick off at 6 p.m. Live stats will be available at www.LionSports.net.
Southeastern (2-0), which is averaging 94.5 points in its first two games, opened the season with wins over the University of Science and Arts (Okla.) and Florida Atlantic. In their last contest, the Lions built a 25-point first half lead and withstood a second-half rally by FAU for a 90-77 victory.
Damon Forest, Southeastern's leading scorer at 23.5 points, came off the bench to score a career-high 28 points against FAU while newcomer
Trent Hutchin added 17.
Hutchin, a former Woodlawn High product, is second on the team in scoring at 15.0 points per game followed by
Patrick Sullivan (12.5),
Brandon Fortenberry (10.0) and
Jason Marks (9.0). Sullivan has pulled down a team-high 6.5 rebounds in his first two games for Southeastern while
Deshawn Patterson and Fortenberry have averaged 4.5 and 4.0 assists respectively.
Mississippi State (0-1) dropped its opening game of the season to Rider in an 88-74 setback. The Bulldogs have not opened the year 0-2 since the 1967-68 campaign and have not lost back-to-back home games in nearly two years.
Against Rider, Jarvis Varnado paced MSU in points (22) and rebounds (14) to collect his 16th career double-double. He also blocked seven shots to leave him 11 shy of tying the SEC mark of 412 and 134 short of the NCAA mark of 535. He was joined in double-digit scoring by Dee Bost (14) and Ravern Johnson (10).
The game between the schools will be the 18th meeting on the hardwood, with MSU holding a 16-1 advantage. The Bulldogs won the last meeting, 84-59, in 2007-08. Southeastern's lone win in the series came in 2005-06 when the Lions posted a 57-46 decision.
