Cougars shake rust to extinguish Flames
Mississippi State head coach Ben Howland breathed a sigh of relief on Wednesday.
One day after Howland limited his standout freshman guard Nick Weatherspoon’s minutes in Tuesday night’s win over Vanderbilt because of a foot injury, Howland and the Bulldogs received good news that the ailment is nothing major.
“(Weatherspoon) had an MRI and it came back negative thankfully,” Howland told reporters on Thursday. “It was one of those things where you’re on pins and needles waiting on that result. There is nothing structurally wrong there, which is really good news.”
Weatherspoon played only 21 minutes in Tuesday night’s game, including just 8 in the second half. Howland said after the game that Weatherspoon had complained about the issue with his foot prior to the contest, so the Bulldogs elected to be cautious even after the team doctor didn’t believe it was anything serious. On Wednesday, MSU got the confirmation that the injury is, indeed, only a minor issue.
Howland thinks that will provide Weatherspoon with some peace of mind.
“As a player, when you have soreness or something going on, when you know there is nothing wrong structurally, it gives you a lot of confidence that you can deal with it a little easier,” Howland said.
Howland said he expects Weatherspoon will be good to play in Saturday’s 7:30 p.m. game at Alabama. That’s good news for the Bulldogs as Weatherspoon is arguably State’s best defensive player and a catalyst for MSU’s offense.
So far this season, Weatherspoon is Mississippi State’s third-leading scorer as he averages 10.5 points per game. He also averages 2.4 assists per contest.
While Weatherspoon is likely to be on the court at Alabama’s Coleman Coliseum come Saturday, the Crimson Tide’s best player might not be.
Alabama freshman guard Collin Sexton, who many expect to be a high pick in the next National Basketball Association Draft, didn’t play in the Crimson Tide’s 76-71 win over Auburn on Wednesday due to an abdominal injury suffered in practice earlier in the week.
It’s unknown at this point whether or not Sexton will be
It was an afternoon for knocking off the rust for Starkville Christian School’s varsity basketball teams on Thursday.
With the Cougars only able to get on the court one time since the Christmas break for competition, it took a little while for them to find their game.
After only having a five-point lead at the end of the first quarter in boys action against Scott County Home School, Starkville Christian used a 10-0 run in the second quarter to go up 35-15 at halftime.
The Cougars went on to an easy 56-31 victory over the Flames.
“We haven’t been able been able to practice because of the weather so we had to get in the swing of things,” Starkville Christian guard Isaac Buckner said. “It took us a little bit to get a handle on the ball. Once we did that, we were able to get going a little bit.”
Scott County actually held a 3-0 lead in the game after hitting a 3-point field goal to open the scoring, then Stephen Lane went to work. He scored the next nine points for the Cougars to give them a 9-3 advantage.
After the Flames cut the margin to 13-10, Lane hit a 3-pointer, which was his second of the quarter, and Starkville Christian School held the 16-11 lead at the end of the first quarter.
“He knocked down two 3’s and that’s big for Stephen,” SCS basketball coach Luke Buckner said. “We’ve been working on that in practice so it was nice to see him come out here and be able to do it in a game.”
The Cougars scored the first five points of the second quarter with a basket by Sam Fairley and a 3-pointer by Drew Latham.
Scott County hit a 3-pointer of its own to get to within 21-14, then Starkville Christian went on its 10-0 spurt with two more baskets by Lane being in the mix.
“We were definitely rusty coming back and we haven’t played in a while,” coach Buckner said. “We had to get some cobwebs off and in the second quarter, we got going a little bit. We got some of the younger guys some experience. That’s always big.”
Lane scored all of his 18 points by halftime to help the Cougars to the 20-point halftime advantage.
A seven-point second half by Jonathan Burkis with a 3-pointer and two more baskets kept the situation moving in a positive direction for Starkville Christian.
Fairley finished with six points for the Cougars. Starkville Christian, which improved to 11-5, play in the Grace Christian Tournament on Saturday. It plays the host school at 9 a.m.
“Going into the Grace Tournament, it was good to get a game in before that,” Isaac Buckner said.