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Mississippi State grabs needed road win at Georgia Tech, 85-73

Paul Jones Mississippi State Bulldogsby: Paul Jones5 hours agoPaulJonesOn3

Josh Hubbard scored a game-high 25 points and Jayden Epps added 14 to lead Mississippi State to an 85-73 win at Georgia Tech on Wednesday in the SEC/ACC Challenge.

After a slow start, Mississippi State led for the majority of the night and improved to 4-4. Georgia Tech dropped to 5-4 on the young season.

“I just left a bunch of young men that are just happy and joyous,” head coach Chris Jans said afterwards. “It was more just them chatting with each other and I just took it all in. So happy for them and see that winning feeling going through the veins. We talked about this being our first true road opportunity. There’s nothing better in this sport than going into someone else’s barn and getting a win. We got it done.”

Jamarion Davis-Fleming also added 11 points for State while Brandon Walker also had 11 points in his first start of the season. Shawn Jones had nine points for the Bulldogs and Quincy Ballard had eight points and seven rebounds.

Kowacie Reeves had 23 points to lead the Jackets, including a 7 of 14 showing behind the 3 point arc. Akai Fleming, Mouhamed Sylla and Baye Ndongo all finished with 12 points for Georgia Tech, as well

Hubbard was 8 of 14 from the field and was a perfect 7 of 7 at the line. The All-SEC junior guard had 21 of his 25 points in the second half.

“It means a lot,” said Hubbard, who also had five assists. “We were so focused on getting a road win and road wins are like gold bars. We wanted this one and just executed hard. My coaches told me to keep shooting and I got in a good rhythm.”

Leading by nine at halftime, State had a 6-0 spurt to open the second half to extend the lead to 44-28. Georgia Tech got within 55-49 moments later but nine straight points by Hubbard gave the Bulldogs a 64-51 lead with 8:51 remaining in the game. Georgia Tech never threatened the rest of the way.

In the early going, the host Jackets jumped out to a 9-2 lead. But it was State the rest of the first half. The Bulldogs used a 17-4 run to take a 19-13 lead following a Quincy Ballard dunk midway through the half. State led by as many as 12 in the opening half and led 37-28 at halftime.

State shot 51% for the game and made 6 of 22 from 3 point territory. The Bulldogs were 17 of 22 at the line, had 13 turnovers and held a 47-42 rebounding advantage. The Jackets shot just 34% for the game and made 8 of 30 from 3 point range. Georgia Tech made 13 of 20 at the charity stripe and had only five turnovers on the night.

State shot 44% in the first half but the Bulldogs were just 3 of 16 beyond the 3 point arc. State was 4 of 5 at the foul line, had four turnovers and out-rebounded Georgia Tech, 26-25, in the opening half.

Georgia Tech shot just 28% in the opening half and made 4 of 17 from 3 point range. The Jackets had five turnovers in the half and made just 2 of 7 at the charity stripe.

“I was pleased with being assignment correct,” said Jans of the first-half defense. “We got our gameplan to the floor and we’re getting better at transferring our work and our scout into the game. Hopefully that bodes well for us going forward. We really worked on our ball-screen defense and tweaked it a little bit.”

Up Next

Mississippi State returns to action on Sunday when the Bulldogs face San Francisco in Tupelo for a neutral-court meeting. Tipoff is set for 3 p.m. and the game will also be televised by the SEC Network. San Francisco was 5-3 heading into Wednesday’s game with North Alabama and have lost two straight.

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