STARKVILLE — Catina Bett knows one game isn’t reason to celebrate.

But the senior center realizes a single step can help her regain the confidence she needs to be a significant contributor for the Mississippi State women’s basketball team.

That’s why Bett’s 11-point, eight-rebound effort Wednesday in a 63-47 victory against the University of South Alabama could be a sign she is ready to get back on track. Bett’s scoring output was her biggest in 19 games, dating back to a 45-41 loss to Auburn on Jan. 20, 2011 in Starkville. She also had three blocked shots in a season-high 29 minutes. The fact she had only one foul was a key reason she was able to be much more active in the lane.

“I feel like I still have a lot more work to do,” Bett said. “They need me down there in the post, and my presence has to be there to help the team. I feel like I am getting my mojo back. It is just going to take time and effort. That is all I can do, give 100 percent every time I go out there.”

MSU (6-1) hopes Bett can build on her performance at 2 p.m. today when it plays host to Tulane (6-1) at Humphrey Coliseum.

Bett attempted a season-high nine shots against South Alabama. Her scoring output could have been even higher if not for five turnovers, but MSU continued to go to Bett on the block in an attempt to get her going. MSU coach Sharon Fanning-Otis said the Lady Bulldogs want Bett to be more involved so she can team with senior forward Ashley Brown and freshman center Martha Alwal to complement perimeter scorers.

“We want her to gain confidence,” said Fanning-Otis, who earned her 600th career victory Wednesday. “We said at halftime we felt like the posts were posting too far from the bucket. I thought she did a better job (of getting position and getting a defender on her back) in the second half.”

Ideally, Fanning-Otis said MSU will try to get post players like Bett 10-15 post touches a game. She said guards like senior Diamber Johnson have to recognize the situations and feed the block at the right times. She also said the post players have to be aggressive and call for the ball when they establish position in a scoring spot.

Being in those spots can pay dividends even when Bett, who is averaging 6.3 points and four rebounds per game, doesn’t get the ball. With Fanning-Otis encouraging Johnson and other guards to attack the basket, drives from the perimeter can draw defenders, which would create openings for post players to take passes for layups or to crash the offensive glass for putbacks.

Any easy baskets MSU can get will help, especially today against a Tulane team that held Louisiana Tech to 29.5-percent shooting Friday in a 61-52 victory. The win was the program’s first against Louisiana Tech, and it came on the heels of a 65-62 overtime win against LSU on Nov. 19. That win helped coach Lisa Stockton’s program beat LSU in consecutive years for the first time.

Tulane will look to junior guard Olivia Grayson (leading scorer at 12.6 points per game) and senior center Brett Renzio today. Grayson had a team-high 19 points, while Renzio had 16 points, 16 rebounds, and six blocked shots against Louisiana Tech.

Tulane beat MSU 62-42 in the second game of the 2010-11 season in New Orleans. The Lady Bulldogs played without Bett, who wasn’t eligible after transferring the year before from the University of Kentucky, and shot 29.5 percent (18 of 61), their fourth-worst percentage from the field last season.

“It is going to be another game like the Xavier game (a 71-65 victory on No. 14). It is going to be a pay-back game,” Bett said. “We just have to come out with a harder drive, a harder mentality, because they are a pretty good team, but I feel like we can beat them. We just have to come out and play our game, play to our level, and get another win.”

Said Johnson, “To beat a team like that that is coming in and has beaten LSU and other good teams, we’re going to have to put together two halves. That is something we struggled with last year. Having games like this is going to force us to do that and to know what it takes. We’re going to have to start working on that in practice and making sure we get it.”

Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.