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STARKVILLE, Miss. Lorenzo Carter Jersey . -- Mississippi State was crushed twice by Florida last season, once by 35 points and the other by 25. This time around, the margin was just 11. That represents progress for Mississippi State, which lost 62-51 to No. 3 Florida on Thursday night, but the gap between the Gators and the Bulldogs is still vast. "Our team is growing," Mississippi State coach Rick Ray said. "But weve still got a ways to go." Mississippi State (13-7, 3-4 Southeastern Conference) lost for the first time at home during conference play. Colin Borchert scored 15 and Craig Sword 12 for Mississippi State. Casey Prather scored 16 points, Patric Young added 12 and the Gators used a 16-4 run early in the second half to turn a tight game into a relatively easy victory. Florida has won 12 straight this season and four in a row against the Bulldogs. It was the 12th time this season Florida (18-2, 7-0) held an opponent to 60 points or fewer. "We cant always control the ball going in the basket," Young said. "But we can control our energy on the defensive end." And that energy was intense the entire night. Mississippi State shot a respectable 23 of 54 (42.6 per cent) from the field, but had to work hard on every possession. The Bulldogs briefly took a 31-30 lead early in the second half on Gavin Wares layup, but the Gators responded with a 16-4 run. Mississippi State couldnt muster the energy for a rally. Florida coach Billy Donovan said the key to stopping Mississippi State was keeping them off the free throw line. The Bulldogs had 117 combined free-throw attempts in three SEC home games this season. They were just 1 of 6 on Thursday. "A huge key was if we could defend them off the bounce and not foul," Donovan said. "I thought we did a good job there." Floridas Michael Frazier II had just nine points, but his three 3-pointers helped the Gators keep a comfortable lead throughout most of the second half. The 6-foot-4 sophomore missed his first six 3-point attempts before the last three dropped. The Gators shot 6 of 20 (30 per cent) from 3-point range and 8 of 19 (42.1 per cent) on free throws. Chris Walker, Floridas touted 6-foot-10 freshman forward, is expected to make his college debut on Tuesday against Missouri after being cleared by the NCAA. His arrival will give the Gators some much needed frontcourt depth. But Young was enough on Thursday. The powerful 6-foot-9, 240-pound senior was a consistent presence on both ends of the court, providing timely baskets and post defence. "No disrespect to Mississippi State, but theyre probably not going to win an SEC championship this year," Young said. "We have an opportunity to do that, and we need to play to a championship level." Prather went to the locker room briefly in the first half after an ankle injury, but returned to shoot 7 of 8 from the field. His baseline drive and dunk gave the Gators a 55-42 lead with 5 minutes left that ended any remaining doubt. Mississippi State had an 11-1 record at Humphrey Coliseum coming into Thursdays game and was tough once again on its home floor. Tyson Cunningham made an off-balance 3-pointer with the shot clock winding down to spark an 8-0 run at the end of the first half, and I.J. Readys layup a few seconds before the buzzer pulled the Bulldogs within 27-26. Florida was coming off a dominant defensive performance in a 67-41 victory over Tennessee on Saturday, and the teams length and athleticism also gave the Bulldogs problems. But the Gators couldnt hit shots -- making just 10 of 27 (37 per cent) from the field in the first half. Nothing was easy. Young hit a couple inside buckets early in the second half and Prathers layup at the rim gave the Gators a 42-32 advantage with 12:05 remaining. Mississippi State had a couple of good moments in the second half, but Floridas superior depth, size and athleticism proved too much to overcome. Ready added 10 points for the Bulldogs. "Offensively we had our problems," Mississippi State coach Rick Ray. "I thought we had a plethora of opportunities in the first half to finish at the rim that we just didnt get done." Lorenzo Carter Giants Jersey . -- Josh Smith made a 3-pointer as time expired and finished with 20 points to lift the Detroit Pistons to a 99-98 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Thursday night in both teams exhibition finale. New York Giants Jerseys . -- Green Bay wide receiver Greg Jennings will be on the sideline as the Packers make their push for a perfect regular season.Saturdays game had a strange start to it with Chris Thorburn dropping the gloves with Zdeno Chara after Chara got a penalty for a high hit on Blake Wheeler. Two seconds after that, James Wright fought Matt Fraser. All of that occurred before the game was even four minutes old. The Jets opened the scoring at the 10:54 mark of the first period with Dustin Byfuglien scoring his 9th of the season, unassisted. Byfuglien has scored in back-to-back games and has now surpassed his goal total of last year with three goals and seven assists in his last 11 games. But he would be the only Jet to beat Tuukka Rask in the afternoon game in Boston. Daniel Paille tied the game at 14:06 and the first period ended 1-1 with the Bruins outshooting the Jets 10-9. The second period was the Jets best offensively, but despite outshooting the Bruins 19-12, the team came out trailing 3-1. With the game still tied at one, the Jets had a number of chances to take the lead, the best when Devin Setoguchi had Rask down and put one off the cross bar. Only 53 seconds later, the Bruins took the lead Torey Krug scored his first of two goals and, after an assist on the goal in the first, had his first career three-point game. The rookie defenceman was a plus-three in the game with four shots on goal. The only goal of the third came from Riley Smith with his team leading 15th of the year. Thhe Jets outshot the Bruins 37-29 with Byfuglien leading the way with seven shots, followed by Evander Kane with six. Saquon Barkley Giants Jersey. After 19 shots by defencemen in Ottawa, Jets had another 19 in this game. Jacob Trouba had tough night, finishing minus-three in only 18:44 of ice time, his second lowest total of the season other than the game against St. Louis where he was injured. Andrew Ladd has now gone back-to-back games without a shot on goal, while Bryan Littles current run of only two goals in his last 21 games (hes pointless in his last four) has Byfuglien just one point behind him for the team scoring lead. Blake Wheeler has now been kept off the score sheet for three straight games. “I didnt think we played hard enough,” commented Jets coach Claude Noel post-game." We had a few good scoring chances in the second, but needed more people in front of the net. Our guy (Ondrej Pavelec) didnt see much on the ones that went in. You cant give up four goals in this league and expect to win. We have to defend better, we have to check better. Give up three or four and you are chasing the game.” The Jets close out their three-game road trip in Pittsburgh against the Penguins on Sunday afternoon before returning home to face the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday evening. Both games are available on TSN Jets regional and TSN Radio 1290 Winnipeg. Cheap Ducks Jerseys Cheap Coyotes Jerseys Cheap Bruins Jerseys Cheap Sabres Jerseys Cheap Flames Jerseys Cheap Hurricanes Jerseys Cheap Blackhawks Jerseys Cheap Avalanche Jerseys Cheap Blue Jackets Jerseys Cheap Stars Jerseys Cheap Red Wings Jerseys Cheap Oilers Jerseys Cheap Florida Panthers Jerseys Cheap Los Angeles Kings Jerseys Cheap Wild Jerseys ' ' ' |
