Mississippi State basketball was leading by eight points to start the second half. Seven minutes later, Georgia tied the game with seven minutes to play. 

Stegeman Coliseum was as loud as it had been all game.

Then with 6:33 to go in the game, MSU forward Cameron Matthews had the ball in the post and kicked it out to the top of the key for Claudell Harris Jr. Harris sank a catch-and-shoot 3-pointer as the shot clock expired, hushing the Georgia fans. 

That was one of five times in the half when Georgia tied the game up, only for Mississippi State to answer on the next possession in the nail-biter of a 76-75 win on Saturday in Athens, Georgia. The win snapped a two-game losing skid seven days after Mississippi State (17-6, 5-5 SEC) suffered its worst home loss since 2013.

“It was quite the game,” MSU coach Chris Jans said. “We survived a lot.”

How Mississippi State kept punching Georgia back

It wasn’t one MSU player who kept scoring to hold off Georgia’s surges. In fact, there were different players in each instance. 

“It meant a lot, but that’s nothing new,” Matthews said. “That’s the same thing we’ve been working with all year. We got about 9-10 guys deep. We work hard every day. We get after each other every day, so we already knew what we could do.”

First, starting center Michael Nwoko, who scored MSU’s first nine points of the game, muscled in for a layup at the 17:05 mark, ending Georgia’s 8-0 run out of halftime. 

Thirty-six seconds later, after Georgia tied it at 42, RJ Melendez, the transfer from Georgia who was booed by fans all game, hit a free throw. 

Georgia (16-6, 4-7) tied the score again at 45 with Silas Demary Jr.’s 3-pointer. Shawn Jones Jr. answered with a 3-pointer, kick-starting an 8-0 MSU run. 

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Mississippi State broke one last tie with 3:42 remaining after Georgia scored five points in one possession. Harris was whistled for a flagrant foul on Georgia freshman Asa Newell, who connected on both of his free throws. Then, Newell drilled a 3-pointer to knot the score at 71-71. But MSU forward KeShawn Murphy slithered around a backdoor screen set by Josh Hubbard for an easy layup.

Mississippi State led for 32 minutes, 20 seconds of game time.

Mississippi State overcame bad free-throw shooting

Mississippi State nearly lost the game because of how poorly it shot free throws. It made just 6-of-18 attempts (33.3%), evenly split at 3-for-9 in each half.

Matthews was fouled with 7.2 seconds remaining, putting him at the free-throw line in the single bonus with a 76-75 lead. He missed the first shot. Georgia raced down the floor with a chance to take the lead, but Demary turned it over when he dribbled the ball off his foot.

Harris was fouled with 1 second remaining, but he also missed the front end of a one-and-one free throw. 

MSU got one last stop when Melendez swatted away a full-court inbounds pass.

“Certainly, the one thing we’re disappointed in more than anything is just the free throws,” Jans said. “We’ve been a much better free-throw shooting (team) than that. It really felt like, I told some of the coaches, this is how we used to win. Bad from the line, bad from the 3. We’d defend and scrap and get it down to a one-possession game and figure out a way to win it. It felt like that. 

“We’re not saying that’s what we’re trying to go back to, but you got to win in any fashion or form. That’s all that matters is how you win.”

It was the first time since 2021 that MSU shot below 40% from the free-throw line (minimum 10 attempts) and won. 

Sam Sklar is the Mississippi State beat reporter for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at ssklar@gannett.com and follow him on X @sklarsam_.