STARKVILLE — Quinndary Weatherspoon grabbed a towel and sat down softly.
A manager came up behind him and offered him a bottle full of water, but the Mississippi State men’s basketball guard/forward shook his head no and wiped his face with the towel, knowing his night was over with 5 minutes, 2 seconds remaining.
After getting three days off to celebrate Christmas, it was MSU’s first game in a week. Although Weatherspoon shot once during the break and was a little rusty when practice started back up on Monday, he picked up right where he left off. After scoring a career-high 27 points last time out, Weatherspoon fell two points short of matching that as he scored 25 points to help MSU roll past Missouri-Kansas City 77-54 Thursday night inside Humphrey Coliseum in the final non-conference game.
“I’m knocking down shots, getting to the free throw line and I’m driving, so I’m doing the all-around game right now. I feel like I’m playing my best basketball right now,” said Weatherspoon who was 9 of 15 from the field, 5 of 8 from 3-point range and 2 of 5 from the free throw line.
Weatherspoon was 10 of 17 from the field, 1 of 3 from 3-point range and 6 of 8 from the free throw line as MSU beat Morehead State 85-76 at home last Thursday.
The sophomore sat out two games — an 87-73 loss to Lehigh on Nov. 25 and a 65-59 win over Northwestern State on Nov. 28 — with a wrist injury. He was expected to miss the rest of the season and have surgery, but he decided to put off the surgery and play through the pain.
Since his return, the Canton native has scored 116 points and and scored 20 or more points three times.
“He played really, really well (Thursday), but he’s had a number of good games,” MSU coach Ben Howland said. “He’s great to coach and he’s phenomenal in terms of being coachable. It’s nice to have your best player also be maybe your most coachable player.”
Weatherspoon said he is not surprised with how well he has played since his return because he felt like he was playing well beforehand by averaging 18.8 points per game.
Weatherspoon scored seven points on 3 of 6 shooting in 13 minutes in a 72-67 loss at UMKC last season.
“I thought we lost him a few times, but he’s a heck of an offensive talent, I even thought that last year,” UMKC coach Kareem Richardson said. “He plays at such a really calm pace; doesn’t get sped up, doesn’t get frustrated much and kind of has that old man kind of really, really calm pace about his game.”
Weatherspoon matched a season-high with seven rebounds (five defensive and two offensive) and matched his career-high with four assists. Howland said those two stats stood out of the most to him of Weatherspoon’s stat line.
The Bulldogs (9-3) led 44-28 at halftime after Weatherspoon scored 18 points on 6 of 9 shooting — 4 of 6 from 3-point range. But the Kangaroos (7-8) scored the first six points of the second half to cut the Bulldog lead to 44-34.
MSU senior point guard I.J. Ready got a putback for MSU’s first points in the half and UMKC answered with a free throw. That’s when Weatherspoon got a steal and took it the length of the court for a layup. He then got a rebound and raced past half-court. He pulled up and sent a bounce pass between two defenders right into the hands of Ready who laid it in for a layup and a 50-35 lead. Ready said Weatherspoon threaded the needle and that was the best pass he has seen from Weatherspoon in a while. Freshman guard Tyson Carter, who had 11 points, had a dunk for a 6-0 run and MSU never looked back.
“He does it every day in practice, he does it every day,” said Ready of Weatherspoon. “It’s his consistency and his confidence. He’s shooting it great. He gets to the line and he’s efficient. I see it every day, he works on it, so it’s not surprising to me.”
For the third game in a row, sophomore guard Xavian Stapleton got to see some playing time. After playing 11 and 15 minutes against Southern Mississippi and Morehead State, respectively, Stapleton played 18 minutes and had two big dunks, including a 180 dunk on a bounce pass from Aric Holman. Stapleton scored nine points on 3 of 7 shooting.
Stapleton has watched Weatherspoon play many times, dating back to their high school days.
“Q’s just got a natural ability just to score the ball,” Stapleton said. “This is the best I’ve seen him play. Once he makes a couple, he scores in bunches. Once he makes a couple, there are more coming after that.”
The Kangaroos got 15 points form Kyle Steward and 14 points from LaVell Boyd.
With the win, MSU has won five games in December — the most under Howland in a single month. MSU plays host to Alabama 7:30 p.m. Tuesday (SEC Network) to open Southeastern Conference play.
Although Weatherspoon is playing some of his best basketball in his young career, he doesn’t want to be the center of attention.
“I just credit my teammates to just finding me when I’m open and I’m just knocking down shots right now,” Weatherspoon said. “I’m very confident right now going into SEC play.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Ben Wait on Twitter @bcwait
Ben Wait reports on Mississippi State University sports for The Dispatch.
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