Inside the numbers: Mississippi State and Southern Miss halftime stats

Mississippi State and Southern Miss have reached halftime in Hattiesburg and the visiting Bulldogs lead 13-10.

It didn’t take Mississippi State long to dent the scoreboard and the Bulldogs cashed on their first drive of the season. Blake Shapen connected with a wide-open Seydou Traore for a 57-yard touchdown pass and the Bulldogs led 7-0 with 13:35 left in the opening period.

A turnover deep in Bulldog territory helped Southern Miss get on the scoreboard with their second drive of the game. A Michael Montgomery interception at the State 26-yard line put the Golden Eagles in great position. But they had to settle for a 43-yard field goal from Reed Harradine, cutting the Bulldog lead to 7-3 with 7:54 remaining in the first quarter.

State increased its lead to 10-3 later in the quarter thanks to a career-long 55-yard field goal by Kyle Ferrie with 3:35 left in the first.

After both offenses exchanged punts, Southern Miss put together its best drive of the half and tied the game at 10-10 with 9:32 remaining in the half. Micah Davis caught a tipped pass for a 3 yard touchdown pass from Braylon Braxton to cap off an 81-yard drive.

Both offenses continued to struggle the rest of the half before the Bulldogs added another field goal late in the half. After a KaMario Taylor touchdown was wiped off due to holding, Ferrie converted a 30-yard field goal with three seconds left in the half to give State a 13-10 lead at the break.

In the first half, Mississippi State had 216 yards of offense with 130 coming through the air. The Bulldogs had five penalties for 40 yards and were 6 of 10 on third down. The Bulldogs had the ball for 15:02 of the first half.

Southern Miss had 160 yards of offense with 114 coming through the air. The Golden Eagles were also 6 of 10 on third down and had five penalties for 30 yards. Southern Miss was also 0 of 1 on fourth down and had the ball for 14:58 of the first half.

Individually, Shapen was 15 of 20 for 130 yards with one touchdown and one interception. Davon Booth led State’s ground game in the first half with eight carries for 52 yards while Fluff Bothwell had five carries for 20 yards. Traore led all receivers with four catches for 77 yards and one touchdown.

For the Golden Eagles, quarterback Braylon Braxton was 14 of 21 for 114 yards and one touchdown. Braxton also led the ground game with seven carries for 27 yards while Carl Chester had four catches for 43 yards.

Defensively, Isaac Smith, Malick Sylla and Nic Mitchell each had five tackles for the Bulldogs.