Mississippi State was staring a problem right in the face.

With 12 minutes remaining, four different players had drawn three fouls apiece, putting an already-thin rotation in serious peril.

Then, Robert Woodard II picked up his fourth foul. Shortly after, Tyson Carter drew his fourth. Then Reggie Perry. Three of MSU’s most crucial players were one whistle away from fouling out. And to top it off, D.J. Stewart also picked up a fourth foul. Somehow, none of it mattered. No one wearing Maroon and White fouled out Saturday.

The Bulldogs didn’t live up to the stereotype of playing “no foul” defense, holding Kansas State without a field goal for a nearly nine-minute stretch en route to a 67-61 victory in the Never Forget Tribute Classic in Newark, New Jersey.

“It was just a matter of playing smart and trusting your teammates,” Woodard II told The Dispatch about playing with foul trouble. “It was about having fundamentals during that time of the game. Everyone was well aware of what was going on in that situation, so we took advantage of what we had and counted on our intangibles.”

The Bulldogs (7-2) came out sluggish, trailing 27-15 with 7 minutes remaining in the opening half, but closed on a 17-5 run to tie the game at 32 entering the break.

KSU, which came in shooting 32 percent from long range as a team, seemingly couldn’t miss from beyond the arc in the first half, converting 6 of 11 3-pointers. But the Wildcats (6-4) were limited to 0-for-7 from long range in the second half.

“We just realized we had to push them off of the 3-point line,” Woodard II said. “They started off hot, so we had to keep them off the line and take away the open looks.”

Woodard II held KSU’s leading scorer, Xavier Sneed, to three points and a 1 of 7 shooting performance in the first half. Sneed, who averaged more than 15 points per game entering the contest, finished with eight points and shot 2-of-11 from the floor.

Trailing by four with just more than 6 minutes remaining, freshman Iverson Molinar made what Howland called a game-changing play.

Molinar, a 6-foot-3 guard, invigorated the Mississippi State bench with a one-handed, thunderous dunk, blowing past Kansas State’s Makol Mawien on a drive then putting 6-foot-8 forward Levi Stockard III on a poster with his finish. MSU outscored KSU 16-6 after Molinar took a player that was 5 inches taller than him to the woodshed. Iverson finished with eight points.

“If you ask (the players), they’ll all tell you it was very invigorating,” Howland said. “The bench was pumped. You could see the look in their eyes like, ‘Yeah, we can do this.’ I’m looking forward to watching that on replay.”

Howland wasn’t wrong on his assessment of Molinar’s impact on his players.

“Man, it shifted the whole energy as a team,” Woodard II said. “That dunk was big time for us.”

Four Bulldogs finished in double figures, including Carter (14), Abdul Ado (a season-high 13), Woodard II (12) and Stewart (10). Stewart made his first career start, and converted consecutive critical baskets late in the game, including the go-ahead layup off a steal with 3:11 remaining.

“He was our best defensive player currently on the team right now in terms of a perimeter guy,” Howland said of Stewart. “He has a little more experience than Iverson, so we went that direction. He’s played well in practice, so he deserved the start.”

Cartier Diarra had a game-high 20 points for the Wildcats, while Mike McGuirl finished with 14. KSU shot 32.6 percent from the floor in the contest while MSU converted 39.7 percent of its shots.

“The whole second half, we did a great job defensively holding them to 27 percent,” Howland said. “We got us to play without fouling. It was a very physical game. A lot of our guys gutted it out.”

MSU is back in action at 7 p.m. Wednesday against Radford at Humphrey Coliseum.

“This win meant a lot, it’s a great confidence booster,” Woodard II said. “It’s going to help us out a lot down the road.”

Wednesday will also be the last game of junior point guard Nick Weatherspoon’s suspension. Weatherspoon is expected to play in MSU’s Dec. 22 contest against New Mexico State in Jackson.

“What it helps with is minutes,” Howland said. “Our guys are playing more minutes than I want them to play right now. But it’s a necessity. Getting him will help us spread out minutes and we’ll have better productivity because we won’t be asking so much from our players.”

Hodge is the former sports editor for The Dispatch.