MSU men overpower Nobel Thursday
MSU Communications | Daily Inter-Lake | UPDATED 1 month AGO
LONG BEACH, Calif. – The Montana State men's basketball team opened play in the Battle at the Beach with a dominant 92-55 win over Nobel Thursday behind career-high scoring performances by Christian King and Waka Mbatch.
King scored 14 points for the third time this season and Mbatch added 13 for the Bobcats, who led the Christian college out of Los Angeles wire-to-wire at the Gold Mine on the campus of Long Beach State University.
MSU shot 59.6 percent from the field and received 41 points from its bench.
"I thought our guys came out with a really mature approach today," head coach Matt Logie said. "For the fans at home that see our score today, you might not realize that team was down seven to Long Beach State last night at halftime and is a team that plays really hard."
The Bobcats play host Long Beach State on Friday at 8 p.m. Mountain. It will air on ESPN+.
Mbatch added four rebounds, two assists and two blocks. King had six boards, two steals and two blocks as well.
Montana State tallied the first eight points of the ballgame and never looked back, making seven of its first 11 shots to build the lead to 21-9 at the 11:30 mark. The Cats made 11 of 13 shots over an eight-minute stretch late in the first half and led 54-26 at intermission.
Patrick McMahon added 12 points and Jed Miller 11 for MSU, which had 11 players score.