Mississippi State
9-10, 2-4
Georgia
13-5, 4-2
Johnson Impressive With Double-Double, But Georgia Rallies
January 24, 2015 | Men's Basketball
Keying Georgia's efforts was J.J. Frazier, who scored 37 points – the most by a Southeastern Conference player this season.
Georgia (13-5 overall, 4-2 SEC) led by 12 points early in the second half. However, back-to-back 3-pointers by Fred Thomas and another by I.J. Ready brought the Bulldogs back within a point with 2:27 left.
Johnson scored a career-high 25 points and pulled down 12 rebounds to post his second career double-double for MSU (9-10, 2-4).
“Georgia is probably the second best team in the league,” MSU coach Rick Ray said. “They are the most physical team in the league. This game boiled down to two things – our inability to finish at the rim and the fact that we didn't carry out some defensive assignments.
“We let Frazier get loose too many times. He had a great night but we should have done some things differently and carried out more assignments.”
MSU saw its two-game win streak snapped despite having the upper hand in the paint against a longer, more physical Georgia squad.
MSU finished with a 28-18 advantage in points in the paint, while having a plus-10 rebounding advantage. Johnson and Gavin Ware (game-high 12 rebounds) combined for 29 points and 23 rebounds.
“We knew Georgia was a physical team, so I just tried to play physical myself,” Johnson said. “Gavin is physical, too. We just tried to bring it in the paint because we thought that would help our team have success.”
MSU quickly built a 7-2 lead after a basket by Ware. A basket by Johnson extended the lead to 14-6 with 14:07 left in the first half.
Frazier then began to heat up, and Georgia began to rally.
The visiting Bulldogs pulled even at 17-all on a Frazier 3-pointer. MSU took the lead back on a Johnson putback. A 3-pointer by Craig Sword extended the lead to 29-24 with 5:33 left in the half.
MSU managed one field goal the rest of the way and Georgia ended the half on a 12-2 run to grab a 36-31 lead at halftime.
In the second half, Georgia extended the lead to 48-36 with 15:16 left. A season-high crowd of 7,549 helped motivate the Bulldogs to get back into the contest.
“The crowd helped us out a lot,” Johnson said. “We were down and the crowd brought us back into it. We gave ourselves a chance there at the end. We have to learn from our mistakes and move on. Everybody competed.”
A steal and dunk by Johnson brought MSU back within 48-43. Georgia ran the lead back out to eight points at 59-51 on a 3-pointer by Frazier. Still down eight at 63-55, Thomas rammed home back-to-back 3-pointers. The follow-up trey by Ready made it 65-64 with 2:27 left.
However, MSU could not regain the lead.
“We made a strides today, and you can't lose track of that despite a loss,” Ray said.
For the contest, MSU hit 22 of 65 shots from the field (33.8 percent), 8 of 18 shots from 3-point range (44.4 percent) and 14 of 19 shots from the foul line (73.7 percent). Georgia hit 23 of 47 shots from the field (48.9 percent), 11 of 18 shots from 3-point range (61.1 percent) and 15 of 23 shots from the foul line (65.2 percent).
MSU held a 42-32 rebounding advantage. MSU had six assists and nine turnovers, while Georgia had 12 assists and 11 turnovers.
Sword finished with 13 points, while Ready added 12 points for the Bulldogs.
Georgia received 10 points from Kenny Gaines.
MSU returns to action Wednesday at Ole Miss. Tip is set for 8 p.m. with a national telecast on the SEC Network.
