John Clay’s Sidelines

Here’s SEC basketball roundup after first weekend:

• Mississippi State, ranked 18th, passed out SEC Tournament title rings in a pre-game ceremony, then went out and lost to Rider 88-74 before 7,421 at Humphrey Coliseum.

• Remember, Rider plays Kentucky next Saturday in Rupp.

• In Kyle Veazey’s game story for Clarion-Ledger, Rider coach Tommy Dempsey said, “I know that most of you don’t know much about us, about Rider, or even the MAAC conference, but we have a good basketball team and we play in a great conference.”

• State coach Rick Stansbury: “Everybody understands now when I said how good Rider is, how good they are. They were just better than us.”

• Rider made 10 of 16 of its 3-point shots and committed all of six turnovers.

• Kodi Augustus, who scored nine points and had five rebounds in 15 minutes after starting, told reporters after the game that he wasn’t pleased with his playing time. “I played all these minutes in the exhibition games and I played 15 minutes? Wow,” Augustus said.

• Alabama lost to Cornell 71-67 in Anthony Grant’s debut. Cornell is the two-time defending Ivy League champion.

• Ex-Kentucky forward Mark Coury had six points and five rebounds for Cornell, which had not beaten a current SEC team since 1972-73.

• JaMychal Green led the Tide with 17 points and 10 rebounds.

• Crowd was listed at 10,135 fans, and attendance was surely hurt by football team playing 90 minutes away Saturday night at Mississippi State.

• Rotnei Clarke set a Southeastern Conference record with 13 3-pointers in a 51-point performance that led Arkansas to a 130-68 win over Alcorn State on Friday night. It was the most points ever scored in an Arkansas game, breaking the mark of 47 by Martin Terry, and the SEC mark for 3s held by Arkansas’ Al Dillard.

• Arkansas played without five suspended players.

• Clarke made nine 3-pointers in the first half as Arkansas led 71-26 at the break.

• “I haven’t seen a better shooting performance than that, coaching or playing with anybody,” said Arkansas coach John Pelphrey, a former Kentucky player. “It was really, really remarkable.”

• Jemal Farmer added 28 points, 12 rebounds and six assists for Arkansas, and Marshawn Powell had 17 points and 11 rebounds.

• Scotty Hopson scored 16 points to lead Tennessee to an 83-54 victory over Austin Peay on Friday.

• Tennessee, which led by just six at the half, held Austin Peay to 34.5 percent from the field.

• Tyler Smith finished with 14 and 11 rebounds. Wayne Chism had 11 points and 10 boards.

• Florida opened with a 74-46 win over Stetson on Sunday, in front of top recruit Brandon Knight, considered by some to be the No. 1 prospect in the 2010 class.

• The Gators led 39-17 at halftime after holding Stetson to nine points in the first 17 minutes. Stetson shot 20.1 percent the first half.

• Auburn needed an 11-0 run in the final 89 seconds to beat Niagara 69-65 on Friday.

• DeWayne Reed scored 24 points, including a layup and free throw with 12.5 seconds left to win it.

• Reed, who finished with 24 points, scored eight points during the Tigers’ 11-0 run in the game’s final 89 seconds.

• Murphy Holloway had 17 points and 10 rebounds in Ole Miss’ 92-64 victory over Arkansas-Little Rock before an announced crowd of 5,870 at Tad Smith Coliseum.

• DeAundre Cranston scored a career-high 21 points. The senior hit 8 of 9 shots from the field, including 3 of 4 on threes.

• Chris Warren scored nine points after missing nearly all of last season with a knee injury.

• Freshman Reggie Buckner blocked four shots in 14 minutes.

• Georgia got by New Orleans 67-59 in Mark Fox’s debut as Bulldogs coach.

• Trey Thompkins scored 25 points, hitting 7-of-11 shots, including three from 3-point range, and grabbing 12 rebounds.

• Bo Spencer scored a career-high 23 points to lead LSU to a 82-62 win over Louisiana-Monroe on Friday. Spencer is coming off off-season wrist surgery.

• Storm Warren recorded a double-double with 15 points and 12 rebounds. He also had four assists and three blocked shots.

• Tasmin Mitchell finished with 15 points.

• Devan Downey scored 23 points and South Carolina opened its season with an 88-50 win over Alabama A&M on Friday. South Carolina opened a 14-0 lead.

• Downey made his first five shots from the field, including three 3-pointers.