Moultrie's double-double leads Bulldogs to victory

November 13, 2011

Arnett Moultrie (23) goes up strong for MSU on Saturday. (Photo by Lee Adams, SDN)

By LEE ADAMS
sdnsports@bellsouth.net

Arnett Moultrie got back on track Saturday afternoon.
With a double-double in Mississippi State's 80-65 win over South Alabama, Moultrie was able to bounce back.
Moultrie, who started the season with a double-double in Monday night's game, hit a rough spot on Wednesday where he couldn't seem to catch a break and missed the majority of his shots. However, with his 28-point, 13-rebound performance against the Jaguars, he seems to have put his performance against Akron in the past. 
"I wanted to come out aggressive offensively," said Moultrie. "I watched film from the last game and the coaches told me to slow down, take my time and that's what I did and it worked well for me."
Even though Moultrie struggled on Wednesday against Akron, MSU head coach Rick Stansbury doesn't think he changed much from that game.
"He is a player who plays every game the same way," said Stansbury. "He doesn't get too high, he doesn't get too low and today he made baskets and still rebounded the basketball."
Moultrie got a lot more playing time on Saturday with Renardo Sidney out due to groin injury. 
"We had to make some shifts in the lineups, because we didn't know Sidney wasn't going to play until game time," said Stansbury. "We had to make some make shift lineups and we had to play small."
Sidney's injury also allowed MSU to use a more up tempo offense and even had four guards on the court at one time during the game.
The four-guard lineup was effective against the Jaguars and Stansbury liked what he saw from them.
"When you're small, you're typically quicker," said Stansbury. "We played small against their big players and we won that battle especially in the first half. Most importantly, I'm proud of our kids effort and how they played."
With Sidney out, the Bulldogs resorted to the style of play they used this summer when they went 5-0 in Europe and that's the style of play Moultrie wants.
"This is the way we are going to beat teams," said Moultrie. "We played up-tempo during the summer and we wanted to bring that back, it's our identity."
The win gives the Bulldogs some momentum as they travel to New York next week to play Texas A&M in the Coaches vs Cancer 2K Classic but senior guard Dee Bost, who had 16 points on Saturday, thinks Wednesday's loss had more impact than Saturday's win.
"We wanted to be 3-0 going into it, but I think that loss to Akron kind of helped us," said Bost. "Some teams need a loss to get them back right, so I feel like that loss helped us and we are going with a different mind set to New York."