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Updated: Saturday, November 30, 2002 7:24 PM EST
NCAA BASKETBALL RECAP
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(23) Mississippi St 100, Jacksonville Fl 65
JACKSONVILLE (FL) DOLPHINS
Jacksonville (FL) Dolphins
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MISSISSIPPI ST. BULLDOGS
Mississippi St. Bulldogs
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STARKVILLE, Mississippi (Ticker) -- Timmy Bowers scored 21 points and reserve Winsome Frazier had 16 as No. 23 Mississippi State continued a six-game homestand with a 100-65 rout of Jacksonville.

Marcus Campbell contributed a career-high 14 and Ontario Harper and Michal Ignerski each had 10 for Mississippi State (2-1), which has won two straight since a season-opening loss to Louisiana-Lafayette.

"I saw some improvement in a lot of areas," said coach Rick Stansbury, whose Mississippi State teams are 27-3 against non-SEC competition. "It's always good to win, but it's good to win when you see some guys that you think are making improvements."

Bowers notched his fourth career 20-point outing.

"I think we showed a great team effort tonight," he said. "We came out and played to our fullest capabilities. We have a lot of talent levels on this team. I just tried to get out into the passing lanes and use our defense to establish our offense and I think we did that."

Kevin Sheppard scored a career-high 30 points but Jacksonville (3-2) allowed more than 68 points in a game for the first time this season and fell to 0-3 all-time against the Bulldogs.

This was the Dolphins' worst defeat since a 78-43 loss to South Florida during the 1996-97 season. They yielded 100 points for the first time since a giving up 101 in a loss to Texas-Pan American during the 1997-98 campaign.

However, Jacksonville coach Hugh Durham was most impressed with Mississippi State's defense.

"What set the tone of the game was that they did a great job defensively," he said. "Any time you get talented athletes that will play defense, you have a chance to be really good. They took us out with their defensive play in the first half."

Mississippi State ran out to a 15-5 lead in the first seven minutes of the contest, but the Dolphins closed within two points with 11:28 left in the half on two free throws by Ryan Lewis and a pair of 3-pointers by Sheppard.

However, the Bulldogs took control for good with a 14-4 spurt that gave them a 29-17 lead with 7:48 remaining in the half. They owned a 45-26 advantage at the intermission and led by double digits thereafter.

"We came out in the first half and established the game defensively," Stansbury said. "We guarded some guys as good as you can. The most disappointing thing was at the start of the second half, we didn't come out and bury them like good teams do."

The Bulldogs shot 58 percent (37-of-64) from the field, including 10-of-19 (53 percent) from 3-point range. They held Jacksonville to 44-percent shooting (19-of-43) and owned a 36-24 edge in rebounding.


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