GREEN & WHITE BASKETBALL

Sidney Cooks trying to help Michigan State women in WNIT title pursuit

Brian Calloway
Lansing State Journal
Michigan State's Sidney Cooks, right, shoots against Toledo's Tanaya Beacham (23), Monday, March 19, 2018, in East Lansing, Mich. MSU won 68-66.

EAST LANSING - Sidney Cooks knows it might not be the ideal tournament that the Michigan State women's basketball team finds itself in.

But the freshman forward is glad the journey for the Spartans is still in progress.

"My main thing as a freshman was just seeing my seniors go out with a smile on their face and getting a championship, no matter where it's coming from," Cooks said.

MSU remains in the hunt for a WNIT championship and heads on the road to face South Dakota in a third-round contest at 8 p.m. Thursday.

Cooks returned to the court after suffering an ankle injury earlier this month to play a part in the Spartans (19-13) keeping their season alive. She missed last week's WNIT opening-round victory overCincinnati, but scored 15 points off the bench in Monday's win over Toledo.

"I'm for sure in pain," said Cooks, who had been bothered by an Achilles injury last month. "I just want to leave it all on the floor. Hurting or not, it was 100 percent when I had to get on the floor or coach (Suzy Merchant) would be kind of upset that I didn't rest or whatever. I just wanted to show her I was ready, show my teammates I've got their back - hurt or not. I'm just going to keep resting it and icing it up and getting ready for the next game."

Merchant was impressed with how Cooks responded and played Monday in her return from the severely sprained ankle.

"It says a lot about her, I think, to come back," Merchant said. "I think, too, she was a little bit of a victim this year when we had all those guard injuries. I don't think that helped her game. You can see when we have Shay (Colley) on the floor and Taryn (McCutcheon) on the floor together that just changes people's ability to score the ball. I think Sid is a benefactor of those kids being able to play north and south and set people up.

"I thought she looked really good (Monday) offensively for sure."

Cooks' goal is to add on to a steady freshman season where she's aided a balanced attack by averaging 9.6 points and started 22 of the 31 games she has appeared in for MSU.

"I can definitely say I had a lot of fun," Cooks said. "I'm just looking forward to what's next. Just showing people what I can do as a freshman excites me as the years go on to show them even more and how versatile I can be, and (that I can) be someone that coach can rely on and bring a championship to this school for sure."

Contact Brian Calloway at bcalloway@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @brian_calloway.