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Trey Fort fuels Mississippi State basketball in season-opening win vs Arizona State

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Trey Fort fuels Mississippi State basketball in season-opening win vs Arizona State


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CHICAGO — Mississippi State basketball, behind Wednesday’s season-opening 71-56 win against Arizona State at Wintrust Arena in Chicago, has left little debate. Coach Chris Jans’ squad is the greatest team in Barstool Sports Invitational history.

After defeating Akron in the inaugural field that was in Philadelphia last season, MSU made its return to open Jans’ second season by becoming the first team to win twice in the event.

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While it was a sluggish start — Mississippi State’s first seven attempts were all 3-pointers, and only two went in — that resembled MSU’s defeat in the First Four of the NCAA Tournament in March, the Bulldogs quickly found their groove to leave little doubt before halftime. Thanks in large part to holding ASU to 32% shooting, MSU picked up what could be an important win later this season.

The win marked the Bulldogs’ first in three attempts against the Sun Devils.

Trey Fort lives up to name early for Bulldogs

Making his debut after signing with Mississippi State out of Howard College, guard Trey Fort quickly became a fan favorite. He opened the game with a 3-pointer on MSU’s first possession, the start of his 21-point night.

Fort missed three straight from deep after that, but he didn’t shy away from taking them. He hit four of his eight 3-point attempts in the first half. His three conversions late in the first half helped Mississippi State pull away.

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The Bulldogs missed 11 of their first 14 attempts from the field. However, behind 12 makes on the next 18 attempts, they closed the half on a 30-8 run.

Chris Jans tests depth early

MSU was without three key players in guard Shakeel Moore and forwards KeShawn Murphy and Tolu Smith, so Jans tested his bench early. Within seven minutes, he had 10 players enter the game.

Fort cracked the starting rotation in Moore’s spot, but Jans quickly tried out guards Andrew Taylor and Josh Hubbard. Freshman center Gai Chol, who wasn’t expected to play much this season behind Smith and Jimmy Bell Jr., entered before the first media timeout.

Eight Bulldogs scored in the opening half, including starting guard Dashawn Davis, who hit a buzzer beater to give MSU a 39-18 edge going into halftime.

HOT TAKES: Mississippi State basketball bold predictions

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What’s next?

Mississippi State returns to Starkville for its home opener on Saturday (4 p.m., SEC Network+) against UT Martin.

Stefan Krajisnik is the Mississippi State beat writer for the Clarion Ledger. Contact him at skrajisnik@gannett.com or follow him on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter, @skrajisnik3.





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A jackpot-winning lottery ticket was sold at this Arizona grocery store. Here’s where

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A jackpot-winning lottery ticket was sold at this Arizona grocery store. Here’s where


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A lucky Arizona lottery player is $200,000 richer after winning a Fantasy Five jackpot on Saturday.

The jackpot-winning ticket was sold at a Safeway located at 7110 N. Oracle Road in Tucson, Arizona, Lottery officials said in a news release.

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The lottery ticket matched the winning numbers 5, 15, 18, 38 and 40.

The ticket, which was unclaimed as of Monday morning, will expire on July 24.

This year has already been a lucky one for Arizona lottery players. A Mega Millions ticket worth $112 million was sold at Winners Corner in Tempe, and a The Pick ticket worth $2 million was sold at a Safeway in Tucson.



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No. 21 Arizona GymCats open Big 12 competition with 1st regular season win over ASU since 2016

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No. 21 Arizona GymCats open Big 12 competition with 1st regular season win over ASU since 2016


TEMPE—The No. 21 Arizona GymCats last defeated rival Arizona State during the regular season on Feb. 22, 2016. They also outscored the Sun Devils in the 2017 Pac-12 Championships. It’s been all ASU since then.

Those days are over. Arizona defeated ASU by almost a full point. The final score was 196.650 to 195.725, a huge gap in NCAA gymnastics. It was a huge opportunity for the program, and the GymCats seized it.

“Dual meets, it’s really hard (to win),” Arizona head coach John Court said. “We knew that to come up here in this environment…that we needed to do our best performance. We went 24 for 24, which was great. We had season highs in three of the events, which you got to play at your best on the biggest stage. And we went ESPN2 live across the country and showed our program off. That is amazing. You don’t get a lot of opportunities like that to show the A across the nation for women’s gymnastics. Get your first Big 12 win. Get a Territorial Cup point.”

ASU has not had a strong start to its season. The Devils came in ranked lower than Arizona in bars and beam, both by significant amounts. On floor exercise, ASU is ranked 25th to Arizona’s 26th. On vault, the advantage was No. 26 to No. 33. That had the Devils ranked No. 34 overall, well behind their in-state rivals.

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Arizona took the lead from the jump, going up 49.175 to 48.825 after the first rotation and never looking back. The GymCats broke 49 points on all four rotations. ASU had a 49+ on bars and beam but was below the mark on floor and vault.

Vault was a deciding factor in the meet. In the past, the GymCats often gave up several tenths on the event because they don’t perform any vaults that start from a 10.0. This year, it was an even match as ASU performed a slate of 9.95 vaults, as well.

Arizona had five vaults that scored at least 9.800. Even the low score of 9.775 is often a score the GymCats would keep. On Sunday afternoon, it was the score they dropped. Meanwhile, the Sun Devils had just two vaults break 9.800. Arizona sophomore Abigayle Martin won the event with a 9.875.

“We don’t have any 10.0 vaults so we have to be clean and we have to land,” said Arizona assistant coach Shelby Martinez. “I think knowing that we are at a disadvantage because our ceiling is lower than every other event that we do, but that’s okay. It doesn’t have to be a disadvantage to our total team score. It’s just important going in. We know what we have to do.”

Martin is one of three GymCats performing the all-around this season and has really taken to the role. She finished third of five gymnasts with a 39.325 on Sunday but gave Arizona scores it could use on all four events.

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“I love it,” Martin said. “It’s definitely been my dream since I was a kid, to come in and do everything in college. So that’s been great. I actually prefer it to last year, when I would did like two or three, because there’s no waiting. It’s just go, go, go. And I think that that’s great for me because it’s less time to think. And I’m someone who does better just kind of being relaxed and settling in and going.”

Senior Emily Mueller won the all-around for the second time this season. She did it with a career-high 39.425. The 9.775 on vault was her lowest score of the day. She went for a 9.825 or better on the other three events and won the balance beam with a career-high score of 9.925.

The beam was where Arizona put a bow on its wire-to-wire victory. The teams went into the final rotation with Arizona leading 147.375 to 147.000. After both leadoff gymnasts went 9.800, ASU ran into its first problem.

Sun Devil gymnast Sarah Clark scored 9.450. With Gianna Lenczner scoring 9.775 on the beam for Arizona, it was imperative that the Sun Devils drop that score.

Things got more difficult when Mueller put up her 9.925 in the third spot. On floor, ASU responded with a 9.775 from Halle Braaflat, its third gymnast.

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Another huge setback followed for ASU. Lilia Purler stepped out of bounds on one of her tumbling passes and ended with a 9.600. While there was still a possibility of dropping Clark’s 9.450, it meant that Purler’s score would have to count.

Things got even better for Arizona with its fourth gymnast on beam. Sophomore Tirzah Wise, who was inserted into the beam lineup for the first time in her career last week, scored a 9.900.

“When Emily went 9.95, that was big,” Court said. “Tirzah going 9.9, too. Career high, career high, back to back. It was a great way to close out the competition.”

When Kimberly Smith scored a 9.700 on floor and Martin countered with a 9.850 on beam, the meet was essentially over. Elena Deets didn’t have her best routine to anchor the beam for Arizona, but she made it mathematically impossible for ASU’s Emily White to score high enough for the Sun Devils to overtake the GymCats.

The GymCats got season highs on every event except floor exercise. Their overall score was also a season high.

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Arizona improves to 7-1 on the season and moves up to No. 20 in the rankings. While overall records are not hugely important in college gymnastics, being 1-0 in the Big 12 and landing in the top 20 nationally are important.

Conference standings determine which teams will be in the second session of the league championships at the end of the year. That session tends to get bigger scores even when routines are similar to those performed in the early session. The average of certain season scores will determine which 36 teams advance to NCAA Regionals.

“I think it means everything, and I think that this team is so invested in one another and invested in Arizona gymnastics that it just makes perfect sense,” Martin said. “Like, why not us? I think that coming into the year, we knew that this one would be a harder one. I think we have an underclassmen-dominant class. There’s 12 freshmen and sophomores, so we knew that we’d really have to bond together to come and do something like this. And it’s really great to see us come together and win.”

Lead photo courtesy of Arizona Athletics



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How to watch Iowa State men’s basketball at Arizona: TV channel, prediction

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How to watch Iowa State men’s basketball at Arizona: TV channel, prediction


Big Monday on ESPN will feature Iowa State in action against Arizona. 

The Cyclones (17-2, 7-1) made it two straight with a 76-61 victory over Arizona State this past weekend, keeping the momentum going after putting up 108 points vs. UCF.

Curtis Jones scored a career-high 33 points while Joshua Jefferson had yet another double-double. Jones averages just under 18 points per game while Jefferson sits at 13 points and eight rebounds.

Arizona (13-6, 7-1) has been on fire since Big 12 play started, reeling off nine wins in 10 games after starting the season 4-5. That includes back-to-back victories over Oklahoma State and Colorado.

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Caleb Love leads the way at 15.6 points per game with two others in double figures.

ESPN’s BPI gives the Wildcats a 58 percent chance to win.

Here are details on how to watch Iowa State’s contest at Arizona on Monday, Jan. 27:

Who: Iowa State at Arizona in men’s Big 12 Conference basketball action

When: 9:30 p.m. CT | Monday, January 27

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Where: McKale Memorial Center | Tucson, Arizona

Live Stream: Stream Iowa State at Arizona live on fuboTV (Start your free trial)

TV Channel: ESPN

Our Prediction: Iowa State 80, Arizona 74

Live Updates, Highlights: Follow the game on Iowa State on SI for live updates, in-game analysis and big-play highlights.

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