ATHENS — After watching Kentavious Caldwell-Pope light up his team’s zone defense in the first half, Mississippi State coach Rick Ray decided to make a defensive switch.
Ray used a man-to-man defense with Jalen Steele, who was assigned the task of guarding Caldwell-Pope in the second half and switching off on screens.
“We wanted to try and trap him every time he’d come off the ball screen to basically speed his game up,” Steele said. “We knew we couldn’t let him be as comfortable in the first half.”
Steele scored a career-high 21 points, Craig Sword added 14 and Mississippi State won its third straight game with a 72-61 victory over Georgia on Saturday.
Caldwell-Pope finished with 16 points for Georgia, but the fourth-leading scorer in the Southeastern Conference went 0 for 6 from the field in the second half.
And as Caldwell-Pope goes, so does Georgia. It’s no secret that he’s led the Bulldogs in scoring in all but one game this season.
“After I spoke to the team at halftime, we kept them in front of us,” Ray said. “I think the biggest thing was that we kept penetration from happening in the second half.”
Steele’s consecutive 3-pointers gave Mississippi State (7-7, 2-0 SEC) an 11-point lead, its biggest of the game until the final 10 seconds, with 5:02 remaining.
Charles Mann added 14 points for Georgia (6-9, 0-2).
Georgia got reserves Donte’ Williams and Kenny Gaines back from one-game suspensions levied by coach Mark Fox for breaking unspecified team rules.
But their return made little difference in helping the Bulldogs avoid their second straight loss. Williams scored five points in 24 minutes and went 3 for 9 from the free-throw line. Gaines had five points in 12 minutes.
Mississippi State took a six-point lead on Steele’s 3 from the left wing with 11:33 remaining, but Georgia forced a 50-all tie on Tim Dixon’s putback at the 9:01 mark.
Steele’s previous career high was 19 points, scored last March 8 against Georgia.
“I felt like in the second half that they guarded our shooting guard and we didn’t guard theirs,” Fox said. “We couldn’t get Kentavious a good look at the basket, and their shooter got plenty, so that was the difference in the game.”
MISSISSIPPI STATE (7-7)
Steele 7-16 3-4 21, Borchert 3-6 0-1 7, Bloodman 0-2 6-8 6, Ware 2-5 0-2 4, Sword 6-10 2-6 16, Thomas 3-8 0-0 8, Cunningham 2-2 0-0 4, Johnson 2-5 2-2 6. Totals 25-54 13-23 72.
GEORGIA (6-9)
Caldwell-Pope 5-14 2-4 16, Mann 2-7 10-13 14, Dixon 3-4 0-0 6, Morris 1-3 3-4 5, Florveus 1-4 0-0 2, V. Williams 1-4 0-0 2, Gaines 2-7 1-2 5, D. Williams 1-3 3-9 5, Brantley 0-5 0-0 0, Djurisic 3-7 0-0 6. Totals 19-58 19-32 61.
Halftime—MSU 36-35. 3-Point Goals—MSU 9-20 (Steele 4-8, Sword 2-3, Thomas 2-5, Borchert 1-3, Bloodman 0-1), UGA 4-19 (Caldwell-Pope 4-9, Djurisic 0-1, V. Williams 0-2, Gaines 0-3, Brantley 0-4). Fouled Out—Gaines, Johnson, Mann. Rebounds—MSU 37 (Steele 7), UGA 44 (D. Williams 8). Assists—MSU 13 (Bloodman 5), UGA 10 (Mann 4). Total Fouls—MSU 22, UGA 19. A—5,891.