Mississippi State drops Georgia 72-57

Saturday began with the news of a suspension and ended with a disappointing loss for the Georgia Bulldogs who fell 72-57 at Mississippi State.

Prior to the game, Georgia announced that sophomore guard Jordan Harris had been suspended indefinitely for an undisclosed reason. Harris has appeared in 18 games this season averaging 15.8 per contest.

With that as a back drop, the Bulldogs came out sluggish and fell behind quickly in Starkville. Mississippi State led 19-8 seven minutes into the game and pushed the deficit to 37-21 at the half. The game wouldn’t have been that close without a surprise contribution from Pape Diatta who came off the bench and connected on three 3-point baskets in the first half.

State came into the game as one of the best defensive teams in the conference and they showed it early on holding Yante Maten without a field goal and just three field goal attempts in the first half. The second half was more of the same as Georgia would never threaten.

Maten was able to get involved a bit in the second half and finished with 13 points and seven rebounds. Tyree Crump also finished with 13 points as he made his first start of the season. Diatta added one more 3-point bucket in the second half to finish with 12 points before fouling out in 18 minutes off the bench.

Curiously, Rayshaun Hammonds played just four minutes in the first half and was 0-1 from the field. Derek Ogbeide picked up two early fouls and played just 10 minutes and was not a factor.

Lamar Peters led Mississippi State with 20 points while Nick Weatherspoon and Quinndary Weatherspoon added 14 each. Aric Holman pitched in 12. Mississippi State shot 51 percent from the field and racked up a 37-20 rebounding advantage.

The loss drops Georgia to 13-9 on the season and to 4-6 in conference play. The Bulldogs will be back in action Wednesday night when they travel to Nashville to take on Vanderbilt.