MSU knocks off Georgia

The Mississippi State bench reacts during Wednesday night’s game at Georgia. MSU won its Southeastern Conference opener 83-73 in Athens, Georgia. (Photo by Tony Walsh, for Starkville Daily News)

ATHENS, Ga. — Iverson Molinar scored a career-high 24 points, D.J. Stewart Jr. added 18 and Mississippi State beat previously unbeaten Georgia 83-73 on Wednesday night in the Southeastern Conference opener for both teams.

Mississippi State (6-3) has won four straight against Georgia (7-1), including its largest margin of victory in the series, 91-59 at home last season.

“Anytime you win a game in the SEC, it’s special,” MSU head coach Ben Howland said.

“It’s hard to do. It’s so tough because there are so many good players and so well-coached.”

Molinar made four 3-pointers and was 8 of 14 from the field. Stewart was 8-of-20 shooting and had seven rebounds. The pair entered averaging 35.9 points, which trails only LSU’S Cameron Thomas and Trendon Watford in the SEC.

Deivon Smith had all 13 of his points in the first half for Mississippi State, which made 12 3-pointers and shot 44% (29 of 66) from the field. Jalen Johnson added 12 points.

“I thought we did a great job being aggressive offensively,” Howland said. “They were pushing it really hard on us in transition, but when we got stops, we went right back at them. We scored a bunch of points in the first half.”

P.J. Horne made five 3-pointers and finished with a career-best 21 points to lead Georgia. Toumani Camara added 11 points, and Tye Fagan and Christian Brown had 10 apiece.

Three consecutive 3-pointers, one from Molinar and two from Deivon Smith, gave Mississippi

State a double-digit lead midway through the first half as they built a 41-27 halftime lead. Georgia pulled to 67-56 before Mississippi State stretched its lead to 18 with 3:06 remaining.

“I thought in the second half their offense was much better,” Howland said of Georgia. “I thought we came out in the second half and did a great job offensively and built on our lead. It was an 18-point lead after about 3 minutes, but they kept knocking down 3s.”

MSU hosts Kentucky on Saturday at Humphrey Coliseum. Tip time is set for 5 p.m.