Balanced Mississippi St. beats DePaul 76-45

TAMPA, Fla. -- Ravern Johnson scored 14 points and Jarvis Varnado had 12 points and 14 rebounds on Thursday night to lead Mississippi State to a 76-45 rout of cold-shooting DePaul in the SEC/Big East Invitational.

Returning to the St. Pete Times Forum, where they made an improbable run to the SEC Tournament championship last March, the Bulldogs (6-2) built a 20-point halftime lead and didn't allow the Blue Demons (5-3) to get any closer the rest of the way.

Romero Osby had 13 points, Barry Stewart scored 12 and Kodi Augustus contributed 11 for Mississippi State, which made 12 3-pointers en route to its third straight win.

DePaul shot less than 18 percent in the opening half and wasn't much better after halftime, finishing 18-for-64.

All three of DePaul's losses have come against SEC teams. Tennessee and Vanderbilt also defeated the Blue Demons, who are coming off a year in which they went 0-18 in Big East regular-season play.

Mississippi State led 35-15 at the half, making 9 of 18 from behind the 3-point line.

The Bulldogs didn't make a 2-point field goal for the first 18 minutes. Romero Osby's layup snapped the drought and Jarvis Varnado followed with a 3-point play to put the Bulldogs up by 22.

DePaul missed 23 of 28 shots in the first half. Leading scorer Will Walker set the tone for a low-scoring night, going 2-for-11 before halftime and finishing 5 of 21 for 12 points.

Johnson scored all but two of his points in the first half. Varnado took up the slack with 11 points and nine rebounds after the break.

Eric Wallace scored 15 points for DePaul, all in the second half.