Men’s Hoops Holds Serve and Tops Alabama, 80-73

Tuesday, February 25

Starkville

8:00 PM

Mississippi State

18-10,9-6SEC

Alabama

15-13,7-8SEC

Alabama

Mississippi State

Men’s Hoops Holds Serve and Tops Alabama, 80-73

February 26, 2020 | Men's Basketball

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by Mikaela Elizondo, Graduate Assistant/Communications

STARKVILLE – Tyson Carter and Reggie Perry delivered a combined 25 second-half points on 6-of-10 shooting as the Mississippi State men's basketball team earned redemption and a regular season split with Alabama courtesy of a tightly-contested 80-73 victory on Tuesday at Humphrey Coliseum.

The win lifted Mississippi State (18-10, 9-6 SEC) into sole possession of fifth place in the SEC standings. The Bulldogs are a half-game behind Florida and half-game ahead of South Carolina heading into Wednesday's action.

State collected its third straight win over the Crimson Tide (15-13, 7-8 SEC) at The Hump. The home team has won the last seven in the series dating back to the 2016-17 season.

Carter provided 19 points coupled with five assists and three rebounds to reach double figures in 10 of his last 13 outings off the bench. The 19 points enabled him to move past Timmy Bowers (2001-02-03-04) and into 21st place on MSU's all-time scoring list.

Perry compiled his 15th double-double and his eighth 20-10 outings of his sophomore campaign. He piled up 21 points, a game-leading 12 rebounds and a trio of blocks. The double-double also marked the 24th of his career, tops among SEC players and passing Rickey Brown for the most by a MSU player during his first two seasons since freshmen were allowed to play in the 1970s.

Robert Woodard II nearly tucked away a double-double of his own and stuffed the stats sheet with 10 points, seven rebounds, four assists and two blocks.

Abdul Ado posted eight first-half points to go along with five rebounds, three steals and two blocks whereas D.J. Stewart Jr. worked his way six points, three steals and three rebounds.

Nick Weatherspoon and Iverson Molinar secured nine and seven points, respectively. Weatherspoon recorded four rebounds and handed out three assists.

For the contest, MSU hit 30-of-57 shots from the field (52.6 percent), 4-of-14 shots from 3-point range (28.6 percent) and 16-of-19 shots from the foul line (84.2 percent).

The Bulldogs had 16 assists and 12 turnovers, while Alabama had 12 assists and 11 turnovers. The two teams were an even 37-37 in the rebounding battle.

Alabama shot 27-of-70 overall (38.6 percent), 11-of-32 on three-pointers (34.4 percent) and 8-of-15 at the charity stripe (53.3 percent).

The Tide had three players register double figures headed by Kira Lewis Jr.'s solid all-around effort with 29 points, seven rebounds, four assists and two steals. Jaden Shackelford and James Bolden followed with 17 and 11 points, respectively.

FROM THE BENCH WITH COACH HOWLAND
"That was obviously a huge, huge win for us tonight against a really good team that is incredibly well coached and very difficult to play against. I got a chance to shake John Petty [Jr.'s] hand afterwards, and he thought he would be okay, which is great. It's always hard to see a player suffer an injury. That's my number one prayer everyday – that we get through with practice and every game without injury. He's a heck of a player. Obviously, that was a factor in the game, not having him out there was tough for them."

"I thought Tyson [Carter] had a very strong performance today, especially down the stretch getting to the basket when they were really pressing down on us. They were doubling the ball screen, as opposed to normal where they play way off from the big and make you come at them. They really tried to pick up the pressure."

"The Nick [Weatherspoon] three at the end of the [first] half was a great pass from D.J. [Stewart Jr.] We had two big three's late in the half. One was a very nice pass and penetration from Tyson [Carter] to Iverson [Molinar] in the corner … We did a much better job [with tempo in the second half]. Look at the first half, we took 35 shots. Second half, we did a much better job doing what we wanted to do, which is control tempo. We took 22 shots and shot a very high percentage. We shot 52 percent from the field for the game, which was great. We shot 84 percent from the line. We did a really excellent job in both of those areas. We had 16 assists on our 30 baskets. That was great as well."

MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
The first half was a back-and-forth affair that featured four ties and 16 lead changes as the two teams played within three points of each other during the opening 14:56 of the contest.

An Iverson Molinar right baseline trey from Tyson Carter put Mississippi State up 28-27 at the 8:34 mark. Alabama grabbed the next seven points capped by a Kira Lewis Jr. trey to take a 34-28 edge with 5:04 to go. A key sequence during that span was an arm injury to John Petty Jr. who scored eight points during his nine minutes of action.

The Maroon and White responded with a 6-0 flurry of their own over the next 1:22 off the clock. D.J. Stewart Jr. finished a layup, Abdul Ado provided two free throws and a Reggie Perry slam knotted the score at 34-34 with 3:27 remaining.

Nick Weatherspoon drained a left wing trifecta with 20 seconds remaining to vault Mississippi State to a 41-39 lead heading into the locker room.

Alabama deadlocked the scoreboard at 41-41 on a Lewis Jr. layup during the opening possession of the second half.

State ripped off 12 of the next 16 points over the next 2:43 to surge ahead 53-45 at the 16:20 mark. The Bulldogs connected on five of their first six shot attempts of the stanza. Weatherspoon bookended the spurt with a pair of buckets.

Alabama battled back on the strength of a 14-6 run fueled by 11 combined points courtesy of Lewis Jr. and Jaden Shackelford to draw even at 59-59 with 9:34 left.

Mississippi State regrouped behind Carter and Perry who brought the Bulldogs to the finish line with the team's last 21 points.

A Perry right wing triple put State back ahead for good at 62-59, and the Bulldogs took their largest lead at 71-62 after a pair of Carter free throws.

Alabama would close within four points on three occasions. At 73-69 with under two minutes to go, Carter drove to the cup and hit a layup through traffic. He put the game out of reach with another late shot clock layup to make it 77-70 with 38.3 seconds.

Mississippi State closed out the seven-point decision and hit 3-of-4 at the foul line inside the last 17 seconds of the contest.

UP NEXT
Mississippi State concludes a stretch of eight road games over a 12-game span dating back to Jan. 25 with back-to-back trips to Columbia. The Bulldogs meet Missouri on Saturday with tip time set for 2:30 p.m. CT from Mizzou Arena. The game will be televised by the SEC Network and carried online courtesy of 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.