ATHENS, Ga. — In the final four minutes of Wednesday’s game between Mississippi State and Georgia at Stegeman Coliseum, six different UGA players stepped to the foul line.
They made every single free throw. All 14 of them.
When it mattered most, the disparity between the two sets of Bulldogs was never clearer.
Struggles all night at the charity stripe cost Mississippi State (12-4, 1-3 Southeastern Conference) a chance at its first SEC road win in Athens, Georgia, in a 58-50 loss to UGA.
MSU was just 7 of 22 at the free throw line, while Georgia’s 25-of-31 performance there iced an ugly offensive game for both participants.
“It’s real frustrating knowing that we’re getting the same opportunities and we’re just not able to knock them down,” forward Cameron Matthews said.
Coach Chris Jans’ team did itself no favors from the field, either, shooting just 29.5 percent overall and 25.9 percent from 3.
And it didn’t help that the Bulldogs had their worst performance from the line since going 3 of 12 against Texas A&M on March 3, 2021.
With a 2-of-10 performance from the line in the first half, Mississippi State scored just 19 points — but it trailed by only one at the break.
Both teams’ offenses picked up some in the second half, but neither pulled away until Georgia gained some separation in the final minutes.
Justin Hill made the first of UGA’s 14 straight free throws, which were the only points the home team scored after the final media timeout with 3:45 to play.
Mississippi State scored only six points in that span, including a 3-pointer from Dashawn Davis.
An earlier Davis triple to tie the game spun around the rim and out, one of seven consecutive misfires by the Bulldogs.
Jans said he was happy with the shots MSU was getting, both in terms of quality and who was attempting them. Davis and guard Shakeel Moore, who led the Bulldogs with 15 points, each tried three of those seven straight missed shots.
“They’re shots that, when you watch the game of basketball unfold, you expect that ball to go in, and it just didn’t,” Jans said. “We didn’t make critical shots at critical times down the stretch.”
With Saturday’s win over Ole Miss an exception, that has been the case a lot lately for a Mississippi State team now ranked 180th — barely above average in Division I — in total offense, per KenPom.com.
But Jans expressed confidence that will turn as the Bulldogs continue through their SEC schedule, saying his players are fully capable of making shots in practice against MSU’s own top-10 defense.
“It’s pretty obvious we’re not going to be one of the leading shooting teams. We’re poor in all three categories, but we make them at a better rate against good defense,” Jans said. “Our defense is pretty stout for the most part. I know they can do it.”
It didn’t happen again Wednesday, though.
While Jans said the game unfolded how Mississippi State likes it — a low-scoring, defensive battle in which every possession proved vital — it came down to making plays.
But it was Georgia getting the better of MSU in that regard.
“They just made a few more plays than us,” Matthews admitted.
Saddled with a 1-3 SEC record and two games against ranked teams coming up, the Bulldogs know that can’t continue.
Mississippi State visits No. 21 Auburn (13-3, 3-1 SEC) at 7:30 p.m. Saturday before welcoming a Tennessee team that, last week in Knoxville, walloped the Bulldogs 87-53 to Starkville.
Matthews called Saturday’s game at Neville Arena a “must-win … to get back on the right track.”
“We’ve got Tennessee following that, so we have to get back in the right direction,” he said.
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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