Mississippi State sets program record for 3-pointers in lopsided win over Troy

The Bulldogs were blistering hot from beyond the arc on Monday

STARKVILLE, Miss. – Mississippi State had to wait nine days to return to the floor following the team's upset loss to South Florida back on December 5. It took the Bulldogs only a couple of minutes on Monday against Troy to set the tone for how there would be no shocking MSU loss on this night.

Sidney Cooks hit a pair of 3-pointers in the first two minutes of action to help No. 13 State build a quick 10-0 lead on the way to easily topping Troy by a score of 103-76. Cooks' two made baskets from deep were the first of 18 total State treys for the night – a new MSU single-game record for 3-pointers. The previous high (14) was set in 2001 against Iowa State.

"The way we've been shooting in practice, you can tell that we'd have a good 3-point game tonight," MSU forward Rickea Jackson said. "We saw that Troy was pretty much sagging off of us. So we didn't try to force anything inside. We just tried to play our game and not force anything."

Time after time, Troy (3-2) sat back in zone almost daring Mississippi State (3-1) to take long-distance shots. And time after time, the Bulldogs took Troy up on the challenge and drained them.

MSU finished the evening 18-of-37 as a team from behind the 3-point line. Cooks and Jackson did most of the deep damage with six treys each. Jackson finished with a game-high 30 total points. Cooks totaled 26.

Aliyah Matharu scored 16 points, in large part because of four made 3-pointers of her own. In all, five Bulldogs made at least one 3-pointer as Myah Taylor and Caterrion Thompson had one each as well.

"I want every player on our team to shoot the ball with confidence," McCray-Penson said. 

The Bulldogs never trailed in the game. They about put the contest completely away after only one quarter, leading 36-14 after the first 10 minutes of action. State built its advantage to 63-32 by halftime and rolled from there.

It was a completely dominant showing with only a couple of warts cropping up for MSU. Like in the loss at South Florida, State again struggled to get rebounds off of an opponent's misses. Troy had 20 offensive rebounds producing 11 second-chance points. The Bulldogs also left points on the floor from the free-throw line, going just 3-of-10 from the charity stripe. 

While the Bulldogs surely need to clean those things up moving forward, they could live with it on Monday. MSU needed a bounce-back victory and in convincing style, State surged back into the win column with ease.

"I thought this team had a great shoot-around and had a fire underneath their belly," McCray-Penson said. "We talked about being ready to go from the jump because we didn't play the way we needed to play in our last game and it left a sour taste in our mouth."

The sour taste is a lot sweeter now. MSU will try to build on Monday's win come Friday. That's when the Bulldogs continue a three-game homestand as they host Southern at 7 p.m. central.

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