JACKSON — The stage was set.
For the first time all season, junior point guard Nick Weatherspoon was available to the Mississippi State men’s basketball team.
The Velma Jackson High School graduate missed 20 games in total due to suspension, the final 10 of last year and the first 10 of the 2019-2020 season, but was expected to give the Bulldogs a spark against New Mexico State Sunday. Weatherspoon’s brother and former Bulldog great Quinndary Weatherspoon even made an appearance at the Mississippi Coliseum Sunday to witness his younger sibling’s season debut.
Yet, the mood was dampened by the visiting Aggies (8-6), who spoiled Weatherspoon’s return with a 58-52 victory. With the loss, MSU fell to 8-3.
“The game was obviously a defensive struggle, especially early,” New Mexico State coach Chris Jans said. “For us to win the game, we knew it was going to have to be a grind it out, low-possession game.”
Leading up to the contest, Weatherspoon was expected to play significant minutes. Yet, foul trouble limited his ability to stay on the court, getting called for three fouls in the first half and picking up his fourth three minutes into the second half.
“I thought that Nick came in, and you can see it’s going to take a while if you haven’t played in 10 months to get back in-sync,” MSU coach Ben Howland said. “I thought he had a really nice second half, but picked up three fouls in the first half. I played him with two thinking that he could just experience it. His third was an offensive foul if I remember. He’ll be fine, he just needs more reps out there in a game.”
In all, Weatherspoon played 18 minutes and scored eight points on a 4 of 8 shooting effort.
“It felt pretty good,” Weatherspoon said of his return to the lineup. “We’re trying to get the chemistry back on our team. It’s been nearly a year since I’ve played so I’m trying to find that again.”
Both teams’ offensive performance in the first half isn’t going to appear on any highlight reels. The Aggies shot 25 percent in the half, but corralled 11 offensive rebounds en route to a 23-21 advantage at the break.
“That can be really frustrating considering we focus on rebounding and blocking out in practice,” MSU forward Robert Woodard II said. “Sometimes the ball just takes different bounces and lands in their hands. Sometimes it’s in our control, sometimes it’s not. It just depends on how we bounce back from it.”
The second half started in disastrous fashion for the Bulldogs, as Woodard II threw a pass right into the arms of NMSU’s Johnny McCants on their first possession, giving McCants an easy dunk. The Aggies rode the momentum to a 9-0 run out of the gate and built a 32-21 lead.
“The start of the second half was really a killer,” Howland said. “Throwing the ball away on the inbounds to start the second half was really poor. That’s my fault. We’ve got to do a better job of getting that organized against pressure. They were pressuring us. They had seen the films against other teams where it had been bothering us like Louisiana Tech and Sam Houston State. Obviously, that was their game plan.”
New Mexico State extended its lead to 14 points, but the Bulldogs responded with a 10-0 run and eventually took a one-point lead at the 2:35 mark on a basket from Reggie Perry. Perry was instrumental in the Bulldogs’ comeback, scoring 12 of his 17 points in the second half. The sophomore forward picked up a double-double by grabbing 10 rebounds as well.
“I liked him scoring around the basket,” Howland said. “I thought he was much stronger going to the rim and getting two or three dunks. He was really physical … We have to get him more touches in there. He has to keep getting the ball because he’s really hard to defend for most college teams when he gets the ball.”
The lead was short lived, as McCants scored a go-ahead basket on New Mexico State’s next possession, and the Aggies kept the Bulldogs scoreless for the final two and a half minutes.
McCants had a game-high 18 points on a 7 of 10 shooting effort, as the Aggies shot 59 percent in the second half. Tyson Carter was the only other MSU player in double figures besides Perry, contributing 11 points.
MSU is back in action against Kent State on Dec. 30 at Humphrey Coliseum.
Hodge is the former sports editor for The Dispatch.
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