The Mississippi State Bulldogs and the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs meet in an NIT tournament semi-final in college basketball action from the Comerica Center on Saturday afternoon.
The Mississippi State Bulldogs booked their spot in the semis with a narrow 68-67 win over Richmond last time out. D.J. Stewart Jr. led Mississippi State in scoring with 22 points including a perfect 10 of 10 mark from the foul line with a team-high 5 assists and a pair of steals while Iverson Molinar had 18 points on 7 of 10 shooting with a pair of threes and 7 rebounds as the only other double-digit scorer for Mississippi State last time out. Abdul Ado added 8 points on 4 of 5 shooting with a team-high 11 rebounds and 3 assists while Deivon Smith added 4 assists as well.
The Louisiana Tech Bulldogs reached the semis thanks to a 72-65 win over Western Kentucky last time out. Kalob Ledoux led the Bulldogs with 20 points on 7 of 11 shooting with 6 threes and 6 rebounds while Kenneth Lofton Jr. and Amorie Archibald each had 11 points to cap off the trio of double-digit scorers for Louisiana Tech in the win with Archibald adding 6 rebonuds and 4 assists while Lofton Jr. had a team-high 7 rebounds with 3 steals and a pair of blocks. Isaiah Crawford added 9 points with a team-high 6 assists and a pair of steals as well in the victory for LA Tech.
Trends will be updated once they’ve been released.
This battle of the Bulldogs is going to be a good one, but I think it’s going to come down to the wire as well. Mississippi STate’s a good team that comes from the power conference, but LA Tech has a nice balance of size and shooting that can keep them in this game if not win it outright. I think at worst, this ends up as a two-point game, so give me Louisiana Tech and the points here.