STARKVILLE — Mississippi State junior Sidney Cooks stepped to the top right corner of the key, set her feet and let a 23-foot jump shot fly.
Moments after Troy starting forward Alexus Dye failed to even jump for the opening tip, Cooks rattled home the first of MSU’s school record 18 3-pointers in the Bulldogs’ scorching hot 103-76 slaughtering of the Trojans (3-2) Monday.
Throwing any which combination of 3-2 or 1-3-1 zone it could muster, Troy’s sagged defensive approach dared 13th-ranked MSU (3-1) to shoot from outside. Answering the double-dog challenge with a tone more resounding than a Van Halen guitar riff, the Bulldogs splashed home 13 shots from behind the arc in the first half alone.
“It definitely opens up everything,” sophomore Rickea Jackson said of how Cooks’ shooting opens an offensive flow. “We have all the confidence in the world with Sid when it comes to 3-pointers and playmaking.”
On a night in which seven players notched five or more points, Cooks drained the game’s opening shot from the top of the key. The one-time Michigan State import, who sat out all of last season due to NCAA transfer rules, then spun off the block and hit a leaning floater for her four 2-point buckets of the night. Two possessions later, Cooks drilled another 3-pointer as the Bulldogs raced out to a 10-0 lead.
“When you’re on, you’re on,” head coach Nikki McCray-Penson said. “For her, she has to be ready to shoot open shots.”
As Cooks sizzled to a 17-point first half and 26 points overall, Jackson flashed an improved 3-point shot that adds to an already devastating arsenal. Getting to her spots in the center of the key, around the block and, now, on the wings, she torched the Troy defense en route to a 30-point night as the Bulldogs nursed a 31-point halftime lead.
With the floodgates opened, MSU sank shot after shot to close the opening 20 minutes. All nine Bulldogs that saw the floor in the first two quarters carved a slot in the scorer’s column. McCray-Penson’s squad’s 55.6 percent conversion clip also marked the team’s second-best shooting performance of an opening half this season.
For Cooks, Saturday marked the first real return to form since becoming fully eligible this fall. Throughout the preseason, McCray-Penson lauded her ability to stretch the floor and give a dynamic inside-outside presence in conjunction with the more interior-minded Jessika Carter. But as was the case for Jackson in the first few games of her freshman year following an offseason of hype, Cooks failed to find a groove. Gone was the touted stroke that had been praised for months and landed her on the McDonald’s All-American team as a prep phenom. Instead it was replaced with an 8-of-20 shooting start as the Bulldogs’ slogged to a 2-1 record out of the gates.
Monday, Cooks flushed the performances of days past. Rather than the scattershot offensive displays of the season’s first three games, she knocked down 10 of her 17 attempts with a tried and true stroke.
Cooks even offered a brief glimpse at a ball handling ability unique to a 6-foot-4 center in the women’s game. Dashing up the floor following a long rebound, she darted into the frontcourt, dished off to senior Caterrion Thompson, who then delivered one more pass to Jackson in the right baseline corner for the Bulldogs’ record-breaking 15th 3-pointer of the night.
“I think I had a really good day in practice yesterday with just focusing on my shot and really focusing on my form, seeing the ball go through every time and what to do to make that ball go through the hoop,” Cooks explained postgame. “It just transferred over to the court today.”
In a matchup against the Trojans a season ago, former head coach Vic Schaefer railed against his squad for its immaturity in a press conference that mimicked a funeral rather than one following a 40-point win that saw the Bulldogs score the second-most points in school history. Monday, the tone was drastically changed. MSU was mature in its approach, taking the shots Troy afforded it.
Cooks, the second-eldest player on the roster, looked the part of a grizzled veteran sans the rust of not having played in two years. For a player that spent last season watching from the bench, her output Monday offered the youthful Bulldogs a lesson in patience and reason for outside shooting hope heading toward conference play.
“It’s good to be back,” Cooks said through an ear-to-ear grin. “It’s good to know that just because my journey was a little bit different, that I could make it happen here, I’m just really blessed to be here and have this opportunity to be healthy and playing. I’m just grateful for that right now.”
Ben Portnoy reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @bportnoy15.
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