Iverson Molinar knew it wasn’t over.
When the Mississippi State sophomore guard picked up his second foul less than two minutes into Wednesday’s Southeastern Conference opener at Georgia, he left the floor but kept the faith.
“It wasn’t the end of the game,” Molinar told himself.
Deivon Smith made sure of that.
While Molinar stayed positive on the bench, the freshman who replaced him immediately helped pace the Bulldogs to a big lead early, scoring all 13 of his points in the first half.
Molinar chipped in 16 in the second half as Mississippi State (6-3, 1-0 SEC) weathered a late comeback attempt and passed its first conference test with an 83-73 win over Georgia (7-1, 0-1) in Athens, Georgia.
But it was Smith, who grew up 45 minutes west in Loganville, who stole the show for Mississippi State.
“I thought Deivon came in and was brilliant,” MSU coach Ben Howland said. “It was his best game as a Bulldog.”
Howland said Smith used a lot of the tickets given to each player in order to bring his family to Stegeman Coliseum in big numbers Wednesday. Promptly subbed in when Molinar committed his second foul with 18:01 remaining in the first half, Smith — who suffered a concussion on a fall during Saturday’s practice and only returned to full contact in practice earlier Wednesday — put on a breakout performance for those in attendance.
He made all three of his 3-point attempts — all “huge shots,” Howland said — in the game’s first 10 minutes, finishing with 13 points, three rebounds, two assists and a steal in the first half.
“It was really sweet,” Smith said. “I feel like I’ve been trying to find myself all season, and I feel like that boosted my confidence a lot.”
His performance helped boost the rest of the Bulldogs, too. Mississippi State made a whopping eight 3s in the first half, including two apiece by Molinar and Louisiana transfer Jalen Johnson, to take a 41-27 lead at the break.
Of course, holding Georgia to 23.7 percent from the field in the first half was integral, too.
“I thought our defense in the first half was as good a defense as we’ve played since I’ve been here at Mississippi State,” Howland said. “I thought we did a terrific job in that respect.”
In the second half, though, the visiting Bulldogs’ defending faltered, and the home team began to heat up. Twice with roughly six minutes gone in the period, Georgia cut the lead to 10, but a layup by Abdul Ado and a 3 by Johnson stretched out Mississippi State’s advantage each time.
In fact, Georgia didn’t get the lead down to single digits until there were 68 seconds left to play, a welcome sight for Howland and his coaching staff. The red and black Bulldogs had trailed Northeastern by 13 at the half in their previous game, only to outscore the Huskies 44-13 in the second half and win by 18 points.
“We knew they weren’t going to fold up their tent,” Howland said. “We knew they were going to come at us hard, and they did. We really withstood a number of challenges.”
Molinar was a big reason why. His 16-point half gave him 24 points for the game on 8-of-14 shooting and helped Mississippi State hold off a previously undefeated Georgia team that had just recently remembered how to score.
“Iverson had a great second half and really got us off to a great start offensively with some tough shots,” Howland said.
D.J. Stewart scored 18 points on an 8-for-20 shooting performance, while Johnson added 12 points on a 3-of-11 night.
But thanks to the heroics of Smith and Molinar, neither player needed to shoot particularly well to help Mississippi State to an important conference win.
“Anytime you win a game in the SEC, it’s special, let me tell you,” Howland said. “And it’s hard to do.”
Mississippi State will strive for more of the same at 5 p.m. Saturday at Humphrey Coliseum against a suddenly reeling Kentucky team. The Wildcats are off to a 1-6 start to the season.
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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