Weatherspoon's Return Ignites MSU Against Beavers

Thursday, December 1

Starkville

8:00 PM

Mississippi State

5-2

Oregon State

3-5

Oregon State

Mississippi State

In his return from injury All-SEC guard Quinndary Weatherspoon scored skfn;sfn points

Weatherspoon's Return Ignites MSU Against Beavers

December 01, 2016 | Men's Basketball

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STARKVILLE, Miss. – Quinndary Weatherspoon scored 21 points in his return to the lineup as Mississippi State knocked off Oregon State 74-57 Thursday night at Humphrey Coliseum.

Weatherspoon missed the last two games with a wrist injury but provided a spark for the Bulldogs with a 6-of-7 night from the floor, with four 3-pointers. Weatherspoon also sparked the crowd with relentless effort on the defensive end, including four of the team's season-high 17 steals.

"I told Coach (Ben) Howland, I really wanted to hold off on the surgery," Weatherspoon said. "I canceled it Tuesday night. It felt really great being back on the court. It made me feel good to be out there with my teammates again. In practice, I felt a little better each day and my strength was coming back."

MSU (5-2) won by its largest margin of the season. The Bulldogs shot 58.3 percent from the first half and were never in any danger after building a 45-19 halftime lead.

"I am unbelievably fired up about how we played in the first half," MSU coach Ben Howland said. "Q, Eli, Lamar, I.J., Mario, Aric, everybody was attacking the ball. Twenty-eight points off turnovers were huge. We knew they turned the ball over a lot.

"In the second half, we were exhausted. We played so hard early. We were gassed. Our defensive effort was great in the first half. Our passing in the second half was outstanding."

Behind Weatherspoon, Mario Kegler added 12 points, while Lamar Peters and Eli Wright each had 10 points. Aric Holman added a team-high seven rebounds. I.J. Ready had five assists and five steals.

MSU started the contest strong offensively, building a 13-3 lead. Weatherspoon hit two 3-pointers and Kegler hit another. Two free throws by Eli Wright upped the lead to 18-8. Another trey by Weatherspoon pushed the advantage to 26-11.

The Bulldogs continued to excel on both ends of the floor. A dunk and follow-up trey by Weatherspoon helped MSU to a 34-15 with 5:17 left. The Bulldogs scored the final seven points of the half to create the halftime advantage.

"We were doing a great job of making open shots," MSU guard Mario Kegler said. "We had a lot of confidence on offense, and Q being out there gave everybody a lift. Things just flowed a lot better."

In the early stages of the second half, Oregon State closed back within 20 on its own strong showing from 3-point range. A 3-pointer by MSU's Aric Holman halted that run. A 3-pointer by Peters made it 74-52 in the final minute.

"It was our most complete game on the defensive end," Weatherspoon said. "We know that we need to play this hard on a consistent basis. We forced a lot of turnovers and that really helped us get set up offensively."

For the contest, the Bulldogs hit 22 of 44 shots from the field (50.0 percent), 11 of 19 shots from 3-point range (57.9 percent) and 19 of 25 shots from the foul line (76.0 percent). The Beavers hit 21 of 45 shots from the field (46.7 percent), 6 of 13 shots from 3-point range (46.2 percent) and 9 of 11 shots from the foul line (81.8 percent).

MSU held a 29-24 rebounding advantage. The Bulldogs had 11 assists and 17 turnovers, while the Beavers had eight assists and 21 turnovers.

Oregon State (3-5) received 20 points from Stephen Thompson, 12 points from JaQuori McLaughin and 10 points from Cheikh N'diaye. Drew Eubanks had a team-high 12 rebounds.

MSU will play host to Georgia State at 4 p.m. Sunday. The contest will be available on SEC Network+.