Trey Fort said he learned he would be an opening-night starter just two minutes before tip-off Wednesday night.

A junior playing at his third school in as many years, Fort came to Mississippi State after one season at Tennessee-Martin and one at Howard College in Texas. While Andrew Taylor, a transfer from Marshall, was the more-heralded shooter the Bulldogs added this past offseason, Fort was no slouch himself, making 45.2% of his 3-point attempts last year at the junior college level.

The aptly-nicknamed Fort wasted no time proving that his skills could translate to the upper echelons of college basketball. The Jackson product scored a game-high 21 points, knocking down five of 10 shots from deep, to lead MSU to a 71-56 victory over Arizona State in Chicago.

“I’ve had the confidence,” Fort said. “My whole life I’ve been a scorer, I’ve been a shooter. I believe all of them are going in.”

The Bulldogs (1-0) will be in need of more performances like that from Fort, Taylor and their other newcomers — they finished the 2022-23 season last in all of NCAA Division I in 3-point percentage, hitting at a mere 26.6% clip from behind the arc. MSU’s defense, meanwhile, was its typical dominant self, holding the Sun Devils (0-1) to 18 points in the first half. Arizona State finished at 32.1% from the floor and connected on just five of 21 from 3-point range.

Jimmy Bell Jr., a 6-foot, 10-inch post player who started every game last season at West Virginia, added 13 points and nine rebounds. Bell started in place of Tolu Smith, the Bulldogs’ leading scorer and rebounder last year who is expected to be out until mid-January with a foot injury sustained in the preseason.

MSU was also missing another projected starter in guard Shakeel Moore, who made the trip to Chicago but is suspended due to a violation of team rules. KeShawn Murphy, another post player, also remains sidelined for at least another month with a foot injury of his own.

Cameron Matthews, a wing and a leader for the Bulldogs on the defensive end, finished with eight points, nine rebounds and three steals. His defense helped MSU, which trailed at the under-12 media timeout in the first half, close out the half on a 30-8 extended run. The offense heated up as well during that stretch — the Bulldogs started 3-of-14 from the floor but made 12 of their final 18 shots of the half, capped by a Dashawn Davis buzzer-beater.

“I was fairly happy with how we ran offense in the first half,” head coach Chris Jans said. “We certainly had some possessions that weren’t great, but our effectiveness, our spacing, what we were trying to accomplish was pretty good for the first game out of the chute.”

MSU will get its first chance to play in the newly-renovated Humphrey Coliseum in its home opener Saturday against UT-Martin, which will give Fort a chance to face one of his former teams.