Mississippi Valley State coach Sean Woods had been waiting on his kind of breakout performance since his team started Southwestern Athletic Conference play 21/2 weeks ago.
The Delta Devils showed they can be a real contender in the SWAC race with a 96-53 rout of Prairie View Saturday in Itta Bena at the Harrison HPER Complex. The victory pushed MVSU to 6-13 overall, 5-1 in the SWAC.
"It's all starting to come together for us," said the third-year Valley coach. "That tough schedule we played in November and December is starting to pay off. This is by far our best game of the season."
Valley shot 49 percent from the field, including 40 percent from 3-point range (12 of 30), as it piled up a season-high in points.
The Delta Devils showed great depth as they had nine players score at least eight points.
"That right there shows you that we have been recruiting well," Woods said of his team's deep bench.
Terrence Joyner came off the bench to lead all Valley players in scoring with 14 points.
Greenwood's Falando Jones was next with 12 points, three rebounds and two steals. Junior center Paul Crosby was the only other Delta Devil in double figures with 10. He also had eight rebounds.
Cor-J Cox put an exclamation point on the high-scoring performance by MVSU with an alley-oop slam dunk with 11 seconds left that electrified the announced crowd of 2,593.
"That was something we came up with to give the fans something to come back for. We were not trying to run up the score," Woods said.
D'Angelo Jackson scored off the opening tip five seconds into the game to give Valley a 2-0 lead, and the Delta Devils never looked back. They led by as many as 18 in the first half before taking a 50-35 lead into the half.
Valley opened the second half with a 13-0 run to put this one away early.
Jason Holmes and Jones hit back-to-back 3-pointers to ignite the run. Jackson scored five of his nine points during that scoring burst.
Prairie View (5-14, 2-4) was led in scoring by Trant Simpson.
The Delta Devils will get a chance at the SWAC's top team Monday night in Itta Bena when Texas Southern comes to town for a 6 p.m. game that will be televised live by ESPNU.
TSU entered Saturday at 5-0 in league play.
• WOMEN: The MVSU Devilettes pulled out a 71-69 overtime win of Prairie View.
Valley (6-11, 4-2) led 28-19 at the half before Prairie View (8-9, 4-2) outscored the Devilettes 28-19 in the second half to force the extra period.
Ka'Neshia Henry paced MVSU with 18 points and nine rebounds. De'Kisha Fondon was next with 12 points and eight boards. Khristina Clemons and Ali Frank added 11 and 10 points, respectively.
