Simonds leads Georgia State over UMass 71-63
AMHERST, Mass. -- D'Marcus Simonds scored 24 points and grabbed nine rebounds and Georgia State beat UMass 71-63 on Wednesday night.
 
Simonds -- who has averaged 20.9 points a game this season -- was 9 of 18 from the field including three 3-pointers. Devin Mitchell added 14 points for the Panthers (8-4). Malik Benlevi had 13 points, six rebounds and four assists and Jeff Thomas chipped in 12 points.
 
Following a 28-all tie at the break, the Panthers trailed 50-44 with 8:50 to play. They tied it up again, 55-55, on a Mitchell 3-pointer with 6:09 left. Mitchell sank three more from distance and Simonds and Benlevi added one more each in a 15-5 surge to put Georgia State on top for good, 70-60, with 1:02 remaining.
 
Luwane Pipkins and Carl Pierre led the Minutemen (6-6) with 14 points apiece.
 
Weatherspoon leads Mississippi St past Little Rock 64-48
STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Quinndary Weatherspoon scored 21 points and surpassed 1,000 points to lead Mississippi State to a 64-48 win over Little Rock on Wednesday night.
 
Aric Holman added 10 points for Mississippi State (10-1) while Abdul Ado had a career-high 13 rebounds.
 
Little Rock (3-10) did not have any player in double figures and had 21 turnovers that were turned into 27 points. Damir Hadzic led the Trojans with 9 points.
 
"I thought Little Rock did some smart things in the first half and they tried to grind us down," Mississippi State coach Ben Howland said. "Little Rock had a lot of shots in the last 10 seconds of the shot clock and they had some changes with their defense. It bothered us some and their man defense bothered us some. But we did a better job in the second half of getting the ball in the post and going inside-out."
 
Weatherspoon was 7 of 11 from the floor and was 6 of 6 at the free throw line. The junior guard became the 37th player in school history to reach the 1,000-point milestone.
 
"We came out flat in the first half and that's something we got to change," Weatherspoon said. "Once we get to halftime then we see what it takes and we get our mind right. We come out and play hard in the second half. If we could just play in the first half like we do in the second half then it could be even better."
 
The first half was back-and-forth with seven lead changes and the biggest lead for either team was six points. Mississippi State went without a field goal for the last 8:27 of the first half but managed to hold a 26-23 advantage at halftime.
 
The Bulldogs shot just 24 percent in the first half while the Trojans shot 35.7 percent from the field. Mississippi State did make 11 free throws in the first half and Little Rock failed to convert a free throw in the opening 20 minutes.
 
Mississippi State scored the first six points of the second half and a 10-0 run, which featured dunks by Ado, Holman and Weatherspoon, broke the game open, making it 50-31 with 11:03 to play.
 
"Q (Weatherspoon) did a really good job today," said Howland. "He was cramping up, though, and I played him a lot of minutes in the first half. But he kept pacing us in the second half and scored four points right away in the second half. That got us in a rhythm and got us going."
 
The Bulldogs shot 52 percent in the second half (16 for 31) after a 24 percent (6 of 25) first half. Little Rock shot 37 percent for the game and made just 4 of 10 free throws. The Trojans also struggled from distance, making 4 of 20.
 
Mississippi State held a 40-35 advantage on the backboards and outscored the Trojans 27-10 off turnovers.
 
Hampton blitzes App St. behind do-it-all Marrow, 86-53
HAMPTON, Va. -- Jermaine Marrow scored 18 points with 10 rebounds, six assists and three steals, and Malique Trent-Street scored 21 and Hampton turned it on in an 86-53 win over Appalachian State on Wednesday night.
 
Hampton (5-8) controlled the game with a 45-32 edge in rebounding, collected 15 steals and forced the Mountaineers into 24 turnovers and blocked nine shots with Greg Heckstall swatting four.
 
Jaekwon Carliyle's layup with 6:07 before halftime broke a 20-all tie and sparked a 14-0 run from which Appalachian State never recovered. The Mountaineers couldn't score for 6 1/2 minutes.
 
Hampton led 39-22 and Trent-Street sank a pair of free throws for a 47-27 lead with 14:46 left.
 
Ronshad Shabazz led the Mountaineers with 17 points, Justin Forrest added 12 and Isaac Johnson 10. Appalachian State (5-8) has lost four in a row and is winless (0-6) on the road.