STARKVILLE, Miss. (AP) Colin Borchert had 17 points and eight rebounds to lead Mississippi State to a 97-47 win over New Orleans on Thursday night in nonconference action.
Mississippi State (5-7) shot 56.5 percent from the field (35 of 62) and hit a season-high 10 3-pointers.
New Orleans (3-9) shot only 33.3 percent from the field (17 of 51) and turned the ball over 23 times.
Mississippi State opened the game on a 19-4 run and led 43-16 at the half. The Bulldogs appeared sluggish coming out of the break, but a 17-0 streak midway through the half sealed the victory.
Jalen Steele and Fred Thomas scored 16 points each, and Gavin Ware added 10 points and eight rebounds.
Kevin Hill and Lovell Cook scored seven points each to lead New Orleans.
The Stanley Cup is not the only trophy that will be awarded at the end of the Stanley Cup Final series between the Washington Capitals and Vegas Golden Knights. The Conn Smythe will also be given to the player deemed the most valuable to his team during the playoffs.
Who will that player be?
It's not hard to figure out who the frontrunner is right now. Marc-Andre Fleury hasn't just been the best goalie in the playoffs, he's been the best player with a dominant postseason in which he has posted a .947 save percentage and four shutouts. He has been so dominant, he could win it even if Vegas loses the series.
See the top contenders for the Conn Smythe heading into the Stanley Cup Final here.
The last player from the losing team to win the Conn Smythe was Jean-Sebastian Giguere from the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in 2003.
But what about the Caps?
Alex Ovechkin is the leader of Washington and has been absolutely dominant throughout the postseason. He even scored the series-clinching goal in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Final.
Surprisingly, however, Ovechkin does not lead the team in points through the playoffs. Evgeny Kuznetsov holds that edge with 24 points to Ovechkin's 22.
Will their offensive dominance propel them to win the Cup and the Conn Smythe? Will a different player emerge as the hero of the series?
See the top contenders for the Conn Smythe heading into the Stanley Cup Final here.
MORE CAPITALS PLAYOFF NEWS:
The Washington Capitals official #ALLCAPS hashtag started in 2017 during a Caps-Penguins game after the Pittsburgh Penguins' official Twitter account decided to tweet in all lowercase letters during the game.
Now, as the Caps look to face the Vegas Golden Knights in the Stanley Cup Final ahead of Game 1 Monday, Vegas has followed suit by changing their iconic "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign to include only lowercase letters, a jab at the Capitals #ALLCAPS.
Additionally, the City's official Twitter account has changed their handle to "the city of las vegas" without any capital letters and the hashtag #nocaps.
It will be interesting to see how the Capitals' official Twitter will respond...
MORE CAPITALS PLAYOFF NEWS:
