STARKVILLE - Dee Bost has given his two front teeth for his team, and the reward came Saturday.

The junior point guard, sporting a mouthpiece to protect his damaged incisors, scored a game-high 24 points as Mississippi State earned a much-needed 71-64 win over No. 24-ranked Florida in front of 7,512 at Humphrey Coliseum.

The win pulled the Bulldogs, 11-9 overall, up to .500 in SEC play at 3-3. It was the first good RPI win this season for State - Florida was 14th in those rankings coming in - and it came two days after losing by seven points to No. 19 Vanderbilt.

"To bounce back in 36 hours and do it, I guess, against the best team in the SEC, our kids deserve a lot of credit for being able to do that," MSU coach Rick Stansbury said. "That's what I'm most proud of."

It was in the Vandy game that Bost had his teeth misplaced by Festus Ezeli's large elbow. The teeth were bonded together, but one of them is coming out Thursday, and eventually the other might, too.

But Bost showed no hesitancy against Florida (16-5, 5-2), making 8 of 14 shots, including 4 of 8 from 3-point range. The Gators, who suffered their first road loss, had taken the lead with a 13-1 run when Bost knocked down a pair of threes to put MSU back up 60-57 with 9 minutes, 22 seconds left in the game.

"For him to come out and respond the way he responded and play with the effort he played with is incredible," Stansbury said.

"I wasn't going to let nothing stop me, unless I had bad headaches," Bost said. "But I was going to play regardless."

The lead changed hands a few times after those big buckets until MSU clamped down, holding Florida without a field goal the final 5:16. The Gators also missed five of their last six free throws, including two one-and-one front ends.

Kodi Augustus made 5 of 6 free throws in the final 2:06; he finished with 16 points.

Augustus sealed it when he pinned an Erving Walker layup against the backboard with just under 20 seconds to go.

"We were in the same situation Thursday night, where the game could go any way," Stansbury said. "We got beat on some effort plays, missed blockouts Thursday night, and some turnovers. Those two things didn't happen tonight."

It was Augustus who got MSU going early, knocking down three 3-pointers as the Bulldogs built a 25-15 lead.

"Kodi got us going," Stansbury said. "Kodi played good today. Played hard, made shots, drove that ball in there late in that basketball game off a play and got to that rim and got fouled. Huge plays."

Renardo Sidney, coming off a horrible, foul-filled game against Vanderbilt, scored 16, hit 6 of 7 free throws and grabbed eight rebounds. Ravern Johnson had 15 points and eight boards, and that was it for the scoring. Four starters accounted for all MSU's points.

"Us four, whatever we had to do, we did it to win the game," Johnson said.

The game was ultimately won at the line, where MSU made 19 of 23 and Florida made 9 of 19. Florida also shot 31 percent from the field in the second half.

UF dominated in some key categories, outscoring MSU 38-16 in the paint and getting 24 second-chance points. The Gators won the rebounding battle, 43-37, although MSU won 22-21 on the boards after halftime.

But poor shooting erased all that.

Erving Walker led the Gators with 18 points on 6-of-17 shooting.

"We left too many points out there," Walker said, "and it burned us."