Bulldogs drop sixth game in a row

Athens — For a moment, just for a moment, it looked like Saturday night might turn out differently for the Georgia Bulldogs.

Alas, it did not. Riding a hot shooting night from walk-on Ricky McPhee, the Bulldogs wiped out a 19-point deficit and got within three points with 19.7 seconds to play. But they missed six 3-point shots in the final 50 seconds on their way to a 67-61 loss to Mississippi State at Stegeman Coliseum.

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AP

Mississippi State’s Ravern Johnson (2) scores two of his 21 first half points over Georgia’s Travis Leslie.

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It was the sixth loss in a row for the Bulldogs (9-10) — the longest losing streak since they lost seven in a row in 2005 — and it dropped them to 0-4 in SEC play for the first time since that season. If the Bulldogs are to avoid matching the 0-5 SEC record they had in 1998, they will have to win at Florida (16-3, 3-1) on Wednesday.

“You just can’t avoid reality,” said Georgia coach Dennis Felton, defiantly upbeat after the game. “You can’t avoid the reality that you’re struggling right now, that you’re in the middle of a losing streak. None of us can escape that. But what we have to do to effectively overcome it is we have to stay on course with the things that will give us the best chance to succeed. That’s what we’ve always done, and that’s what we’re doing.”

McPhee hadn’t played in four of the past six games and played a total of seven minutes in the other two. But Saturday night he played 24 minutes and made five 3-point shots to lead the Bulldogs with a career-high 15 points. A transfer from Gardner-Webb who sat out last season, McPhee’s previous best was 11 points against Wofford on Dec. 20.

“I was in the game and getting a lot of open looks, and I was able to knock them down,” said McPhee, a junior from Lawrenceville. “So that was a good confidence builder for me. But it was a tough loss, and we’ve got to get ready for the next game.”

McPhee’s performance caught Mississippi State (14-6, 4-1) by surprise. Even after the game, coach Rick Stansbury didn’t know who he was.

“One of the big reasons they got back in the game was that little McPherson guy or McGee or whatever,” he said of McPhee. “The kid who hadn’t played. Check the stats.”

The reason the Bulldogs lost had little to do with the final minutes of the game. Just as in the Kentucky loss last weekend, they were really bad early in the game.

Georgia had five turnovers and came away with no points on seven of its first eight possessions in the opening 4:33. In that same span, State’s Ravern Johnson canned three 3-pointers, and the visiting Bulldogs bolted to a 15-2 lead.

By the 7:30 mark Georgia had as many turnovers (16) as points. Not coincidentally the Bulldogs fell behind 30-11 at one point and trailed 36-24 at halftime.