Men’s Hoops Mounts Furious Comeback over Sam Houston State, 67-58

Friday, November 8

Starkville

7:00 PM

Mississippi State

2-0

Sam Houston State

1-1

Sam Houston State

Mississippi State

Men’s Hoops Mounts Furious Comeback over Sam Houston State, 67-58

November 09, 2019 | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)VIDEO: Highlights VIDEO: Postgame Presser VIDEO: Robert Woodard II Interview Photo Gallery Quotes (PDF)

by Mikaela Elizondo, Graduate Assistant/Communications

STARKVILLE – A 33-6 flurry over the last 14 minutes ignited by a 17-point run during the final 3:26 of the game fueled the Mississippi State men's basketball team to a 67-58 comeback victory over Sam Houston State Friday evening at Humphrey Coliseum.

In the process, the Bulldogs (2-0) extended their SEC-leading nonconference home winning streak to 24 games which dates back to the 2016-17 season. Mississippi State also erased a halftime deficit for the 16th time in the Ben Howland era.

Tyson Carter paced the Bulldogs as he pumped in a team-leading 28 points and dished out six assists. His performance marks the second-highest scoring output of his career.

With his second 20-plus point game, Carter became the seventh player to register 20-plus points in the first two games of the season since 1980-81. The senior has amassed 51 points over his two games, which ties Jeff Malone (1983-83) and trails Hubert Henderson (1986-87) for most points during the opening two games of a season going back to 1980-81. Carter joins former teammate Quinndary Weatherspoon as the only two players to complete the feat under Ben Howland.

The 28 points vaulted Carter past Greg Grim (1978-79-80), Marcus Grant (1992-93-94-95) and Winsome Frazier (2002-03-04-05) into sole possession of 40th place on the program's all-time scoring list. He is 28 points shy of becoming the 40th overall and seventh player under Howland to reach 1,000 career points in program history.

D.J. Stewart Jr. provided a spark off the bench and tallied 15 of MSU's 17 bench points. He also tacked on two assists and one steal.

Robert Woodard II garnered 10 points, five rebounds and one steal. He canned the go-ahead trey to break a 58-58 tie inside the final minute.

Reggie Perry compiled the first double-double of his sophomore campaign and the 10th of his career after he amassed 10 points and a game-high 14 rebounds. Perry also filled the box score with four assists and two blocks. Perry's 10 career double-doubles leads the SEC among active players.

KeyShawn Feazell and Iverson Molinar each turned in two points, while Molinar handed out five assists and Feazell came away with nine rebounds. Abdul Ado was a factor on the defensive end where he contributed six rebounds and rejected five shots, one shy of his career-best.

For the contest, MSU hit 23-of-46 shots from the field (50.0 percent), 5-of-18 shots from 3-point range (27.8 percent) and 16-of-24 shots from the foul line (66.7 percent).

MSU held a 41-28 rebounding advantage. The Bulldogs had 18 assists on their 23 field goals and 23 turnovers, while the Bearkats had eight assists and 11 turnovers.

Sam Houston State (1-1) shot 24-of-65 overall (36.9 percent), 6-of-22 on three-pointers (27.3 percent) and 4-of-4 at the charity stripe (100 percent). The Bearkats received 16 points from Zach Nutall and 12 points from Kai Mitchell.

FROM THE BENCH WITH COACH HOWLAND
"To finish the game on a 33-6 run was keyed by our defense. We changed how we were playing the ball screens and started plugging instead of being more aggressive with our heads. I thought that helped us stay more compact. I thought that we did a better job rebounding. Then, we started being better offensively. Tyson [Carter] had another terrific game. He's the one who kept us in the game in the first half. Reggie [Perry] really came alive, late in the game, but the last 13 minutes of the game I think he played the whole way through and was really dominant. That's the way we expect him to be."

"Our crowd was awesome tonight. Our crowd really helped our team. That homecourt advantage and having the crowd going crazy helped us get back in the game. It was phenomenal. I said it on the radio, and I'm saying it to you guys now. I'm so appreciative of every fan that was here tonight. It's fun, never for the coach, but always fun for everyone involved in the game to have a comeback win. That makes it exciting. I think that'll be something people will talk about."

"Our guys showed a lot of heart and a lot of mental toughness. We talk about that, mental toughness. Being mentally tough and just being solid. We really started to do that. Robert's [Woodard II] three to put us up three was really huge. You can see then it started to fall on them where they felt it coming."

MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
The two teams played within four points of each other during the opening 10 minutes of the first half. Then, Sam Houston State ripped off 20 of the next 24 points to surge ahead 34-17 with 2:45 to go.

Mississippi State rallied back with 10 unanswered points of its own over the next 1:40 to cut the margin down to 34-27 heading into halftime. Carter did the heavy lifting with all 10 points which included a triple, a driving layup and five free throws.

The Bearkats responded during the early moments of the second 20 minutes and stretched their lead back to 52-34 at the 13:02 mark.

Mississippi State dug deep and showed its resiliency. Reggie Perry led the late comeback as he jammed it home and raced to the other side of the court to grab the rebound. Then, Carter fed Perry with a bounce pass for a layup to bring the Bulldogs back to 52-38 with 10:10 on the clock.

Mississippi State kept the momentum on its side and got into single digits on a D.J. Stewart, Jr. dunk courtesy of Carter to make it 54-45 with 6:28 left.

Down 58-50 with under four remaining, the Bulldogs kept coming on a Perry tipin and two Woodard II free throws to slice the deficit in half.

At 58-55, Abdul Ado extended a possession with an offensive rebound which resulted in a Carter trey for the equalizer. Then, Carter connected with Woodard II for a left wing three-ball to put Mississippi State on top 61-58 with 59 seconds to go to send the crowd into a frenzy.

After another defensive stop, Stewart Jr. buried two clutch free throws to make it a two possession game. Woodard II and Perry put the cherries on top of the comeback with a pair of dunks inside the last 20 seconds to close out the nine-point win for the Maroon and White.

UP NEXT
Mississippi State continues its four-game homestand and plays host to Louisiana-Monroe on Thursday, November 14. Tip time is scheduled for 6 p.m. CT from Humphrey Colisuem. The game will be televised by SEC Network and available online through the Watch ESPN platform.

Visit www.HailState.com for the latest news and information on the men's basketball program. Fans also can follow the program on its social media outlets by searching 'HailStateMBK' on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.