STARKVILLE — While North Dakota State was missing eight straight field goal attempts to start the game, the Mississippi State men’s basketball team was hitting a rough patch, too.
It had cushion thanks to a Tyson Carter 3-pointer on the first possession, but after that, MSU went on to miss eight of its next nine shots. The end of the rally that got MSU going again was a transition dunk by sophomore guard and Starkville native Tyson Carter.
From there, Carter attempted 13 shots — and made 10 of them.
Carter’s 35 points on 12-of-17 shooting, 6-of-10 from 3-point range, is the most a Bulldog has scored since Darryl Wilson did it against Alabama in 1995. His career night — to go with six rebounds, an assist and two steals — was the unquestioned catalyst of MSU’s offense in a 83-59 win over North Dakota State (3-4). The win makes MSU 6-0 for the first time since the 13-0 start to the 2003-04 season.
“I was so proud of our team and his teammates; they knew he had it going, so they kept looking for him, they set screens for him,” MSU coach Ben Howland said.
Those doing the passing didn’t see it as much of a choice.
“We have to find him. It’s on the guards to find him and give him shots,” freshman point guard Nick Weatherspoon said.
No one did it better than Nick’s brother, junior guard Quinndary, who played many more minutes at point guard than he normally does but did so effectively with 10 assists and zero turnovers. He also scored nine.
It was a brief fun moment to savor in a young season that has been brutal for MSU behind the 3-point line: even with Carter’s performance Thursday, MSU is still shooting 29.2 percent on its 3’s. Howland hopes the reason for Carter’s turnaround is the signal of more to come from him and his teammates will follow.
Howland called the entire team in Tuesday morning for 30 minutes of shooting practice, which he said Tyson and every other Bulldog got extra practice around that. In that time, Howland’s project for Tyson was to work on getting more arc on his shot. Carter said the time in the gym made him more confident and it showed early on his first 3-point shot.
Then came the air ball on an open corner 3. Howland knew it right away: he called the shot, “flat as a pancake.”
“From that point forward, everything had good arc,” Howland said.
His initial barrage of three first-half 3’s and 16 first-half points had MSU up by as many as 15 points in the first half before North Dakota State ended the half on a 9-0 run, then hit a 3-pointer seven seconds into the second half to cut that deficit to two points.
Four minutes later, yet another jump shot from Carter put the Bulldogs up by 15 once again.
“At the half, we knew we hard to talk more on defense, and the talking starts with me as the point guard. I have to set the tone,” Nick Weatherspoon said. “We got a couple of steals and got out in transition. We all needed to see a couple go in.”
Howland credited a lot of switching on defense and the players’ ability to process scouting information for the defensive showing that kept North Dakota State to 38.6 percent shooting, 28.6 from 3-point range, and seven offensive rebounds compared to 11 for MSU.
MSU will need its best to date when it hosts Dayton (3-3) on Sunday, and it’s certain to come closer to that in terms of personnel available. Howland said after the game sophomore guard Lamar Peters will play after missing the last three games with a violation of team rules. Howland is still unsure of the status of forward E.J. Datcher, who missed Thursday’s game with a bone bruise.
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brett Hudson on Twitter @Brett_Hudson
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