Mississippi State frustrated by Georgia’s 3’s

Mississippi State had a plan for containing J.J. Frazier. It just didn’t work.

The home-court Bulldogs (9-10, 2-4 SEC) said they were aware of Frazier’s 3-point prowess entering Saturday’s game against Georgia and certainly knew they had an issue once Frazier made his first four.

“We just didn’t carry out some assignments, and we let Frazier get loose,” Mississippi State coach Rick Ray said. “If we carried out some simple assignments that wouldn’t have happened. And if we’d taken care of assignments on that free-throw blockout and gotten that rebound we might could’ve won the game.”

Sophomore guard I.J. Ready guarded Frazier most of the game, though the Bulldogs tried a lot of different players, including 6-foot-7 wing Roquez Johnson.

“Sometimes players get hot,” Ready said. “We should’ve adjusted earlier by getting a hand in his face and see what somebody else could do. He was the only one scoring for them.”

The local media asked Ray why he didn’t have somebody “face-guarding” Frazier.

“They’ve got so many good players,” he said. “If you go out there and start face-guarding J.J. Frazier, then (Charles) Mann has opportunities to drive and they have some good post players, too, with (Marcus) Thornton being their leading scorer.”

That, Ray said, is why he thinks the Bulldogs are such a good team.

“I said before the game and I think after the game that Georgia is probably the second-best team in the SEC,” he said. “They are by far the most physical team.”

3-point bombers: Frazier's 37 points were the most by a Bulldog in an SEC game since Dominique Wilkins scored 37 against Florida in January 1981. His 7-for-7 shooting from the 3-point line equals Ezra Williams' UGA single-game record, set against LSU in 2003.

Frazier wasn’t the only Bulldog on target from long range Saturday. Georgia shot 61.1 percent from 3-point range against Mississippi State, but that wasn’t its season-best. The Bulldogs shot 63.6 percent earlier this season in an 87-56 win at Chattanooga.

The Bulldogs were on a torrid pace early in Saturday’s game. They made 7 of 8 in the first half, with Kenny Gaines providing the only miss less than four minutes in. Then Frazier made his first two of the second half before Gaines missed another one four minutes into the second half.