The loss snapped Mississippi State University’s (9-10) two-game winning streak and puts it at 2-4 in SEC play.
Georgia (13-5, 4-2) was paced by J.J. Frazier with a career-high 37 points. Frazier, who averaged only nine points per game entering the matchup, earned the most points scored by an SEC player thus far in the season and was named the SEC’s Player of the Week with his performance.
Mississippi State jumped out to an early 7-2 lead and extended that advantage to 14-7 after a basket by Roquez Johnson. At this point Frazier began to heat up, hitting a 3-pointer to even the score at 17. The home Bulldogs managed to retake the lead and extended their lead to 29-24 on a Craig Sword 3-pointer.
However, MSU only got one field goal the rest of the way as a 12-2 run by Georgia pushed it lead to 36-31 at the half.
Georgia and Frazier’s hot shooting continued as they stretched the lead to 48-36 early in the second half. The season-high home crowd of 7,549 raised the volume in the Hump in efforts to revitalize the Bulldogs.
Johnson, who led the way with 25 points and 12 rebounds said the crowd made a huge difference.
“They helped us out a lot,” Johnson said. “We were down and the crowd brought us back into it. We have to learn from our mistakes and move on. Everybody competed.”
Mississippi State manged to trim the lead to 48-43, but the continued stellar shooting of Frazier aided Georgia in pushing the lead back to eight, a 59-51 advantage.  Not to be denied, Fred Thomas responded with consecutive three-pointers and I.J Ready knocked down one of his own to put the score at 65-64 with 2:27 remaining. However the Bulldogs could not regain the lead.
The Bulldogs were victims of an inefficient night from the field, shooting only 34 percent as opposed to 49 percent by UGA.
Despite a poor shooting performance, MSU dominated the boards with a 42-32 advantage.
“We knew Georgia was a physical team,” Johnson said. “We just tried to bring it in the paint because we thought that would help our team have success.”
MSU Head Coach Rick Ray remained optimistic after the loss and cited the gutsy performance of his team as a plus.
“Anyone that has seen this team play from the beginning of the season to now should be able to see that we are playing our best basketball,” Ray said. “We made strides today and you can’t lose track of that despite a loss.”
Craig Sword finished with 13 points and Ready added 12 for the Bulldogs. MSU returns to action Wednesday at Ole Miss at 8 p.m.