Meeting in the first of two games scheduled
over the next two weeks, the Auburn Tigers and Mississippi State Bulldogs
square off at Humphrey Coliseum in Starkville this afternoon for an SEC
tussle.
Auburn is 13-9 on the season, but currently sits three games under .500 in SEC
play at 3-5. The Tigers are coming off a 59-51 win over visiting Georgia on
Wednesday night, improving their record at home this year to an impressive
12-1. That said, AU has posted just three wins in its last 12 games overall,
and the team is a dismal 1-6 in true road tilts, and 1-8 away from home all
together when you factor in a pair of neutral-site affairs.
Mississippi State is a stellar 17-5 on the year, but the 22nd-ranked Bulldogs
fell to 4-3 in conference following a 69-57 loss at Florida last Saturday.
Like its counterpart today, MSU has been nearly perfect at home this season
(12-1), with its only setback there coming against Big 12 power Baylor in a
54-52 final back on December 28. This game marks the first of three straight
the Bulldogs will play in front of the hometown faithful.
Auburn owns a 71-64 lead in the all-time series with Mississippi State, and
the Tigers have won four of the last six meetings. However, the Bulldogs have
owned the series in Starkville over the last decade or so, winning 10 of the
last 11 encounters, and doing so by nearly 19 points per game.
For the season, Auburn scores about the same number of points (63.5 ppg) as it
allows (63.3 ppg). Unfortunately that trend hasn't continued since SEC play
began, as the Tigers are netting just 54.9 ppg in hitting a mere 36.0 percent
of their field goal attempts, while foes are limited to 61.1 ppg on 37.6
percent field goal efficiency. As you can see, AU has and continues to play
well at the defensive end, but sorely lacks offensive punch. The team has just
two double-digit scorers in Frankie Sullivan and Kenny Gabriel, but their 11.9
and 11.8 ppg, respectively, isn't going to intimidate the Bulldogs today, or
any opponent for that matter. Gabriel (7.9 rpg) is the team's top rebounder,
but Auburn is pretty much dead even on the glass (+0.1), and the turnover
battle has resulted in nearly the same (+0.2). The Tigers put on another
defensive clinic in the recent win over Georgia, holding those Bulldogs to
25.0 percent shooting from the floor, which included a 6-of-23 showing from
three-point land. The Tigers shot just 33.3 percent themselves, and hit only
2-of-11 three-point tries, but they committed just nine giveaways and claimed
a 25-19 edge in points from the foul line.
Producing at the offensive end certainly hasn't been a problem for Mississippi
State this season, as the team boasts three double-digit scorers and averages
73.0 ppg. Arnett Moultrie (16.8 ppg, 11.3 rpg) is one of a handful of players
nationally averaging a double-double, as he continues to make his case for SEC
Player of the Year honors, while Dee Bost (15.9 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 4.6 apg) and
Rodney Hood (11.3 ppg, 4.9 rpg) add support from their spots in the MSU
backcourt. Renardo Sidney (9.8 ppg, 4.9 rpg) is close to joining the double-
digit scorers' club, and he and Moultrie are both shooting better than 51
percent from the field. Defensively, the Bulldogs are yielding 65.7 ppg on
typical shooting outputs of .428 overall and .345 from beyond the arc, and
they grab 4.1 rpg more than the opposition on average. Moultrie scored 12
points and grabbed 13 rebounds in last week's loss to Florida, but he went
just 4-of-10 from the floor and was guilty of six turnovers. Bost scored a
dozen points himself, and Brian Bryant chipped in with 11, but the Gators
committed only five turnovers and shot 48.2 percent from the field in claiming
the hard-fought victory.
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