Georgia learned what happens when you get off to a slow start, aren't active offensively, and don't play with the energy required against teams from the SEC.

It can be awfully hard to come back.

That's exactly what happened during Wednesday night’s league opener against Mississippi State, after a poor shooting start proved too much for Tom Crean’s squad to overcome, as it ultimately fell to MSU, 81-71.

“There’s no excuse for us not to be better,” said Crean, whose Bulldogs made just 13 of 21 layups and only 6 of their 11 first-half free throws.

“I told the team after the game we played like we were on the road. We were quiet, and you’ve got to have real courage to keep going when you’re not making shots,” Crean said. “You’ve got to be extremely active, and we were extremely too quiet. We’ve had some moments like this in-game, but you can’t be in games in this league if you’re not active, and we let our (poor) offensive effort affect our defensive effort.”

Senior P.J. Horne was the only real offensive bright spot for the Bulldogs, scoring a season-high 21 points, including going 5 of 10 on three-point attempts.

Unfortunately for Georgia, the rest of the team went a combined 4 of 15. Meanwhile, Mississippi State converted 12 of 27 from beyond the arc, including six of its first nine.

“We’ve just got to be able compete at a level where it can sway the momentum of the game,” said Horne, who admitted he was surprised by the team’s early lack of energy. “You have to be able to control stuff you can control.”

Iverson Molinar led the visiting Bulldogs with 24 points, including 4 of 6 from three. He was one of four Mississippi State player to finish in double figures, along with D.J. Stewart Jr. (18), Devion Smith (13) and Jalen Johnson (12).

Georgia (7-1, 0-1) also played four players in double figures, with Horne being seconded by Toumani Camara (11), Christian Brown (10) and Tye Fagan (10). It was not enough.

It did not help matters that two of the teams leading scorers, Sahvir Wheeler and Justin Kier, went a combined 4 of 18 from the field and scored just 10 points.

“Justin and Savir were both off-balance with their shots, and we don’t take off-balance shots, we don’t take off-balance pull-up jumpers, we don’t’ work on that,” Crean said. “We’ve got to shoot the ball better, I think we will shoot the ball better, and we shot it better in the second half. But it comes because we are cutting, we’re moving and we’re getting through the paint.”

Trailing by 14 at the half, Georgia would twice cut Mississippi State’s lead to 10, including 57-47 with over 13 minutes to play.

But MSU always had an answer, this time going on a 9-2 run over the next three minutes to push the margin to 16 points.

Georgia would manage to close with eight with 1:05 left but got no closer.

Not much went right for Georgia in the first half as the Bulldogs started game a mere 8 of 32 from the field, or 18.8 percent.

Mississippi State, meanwhile, started out on fire, hitting six of its first nine three-point attempts, ultimately building a 20-point lead before the Bulldogs managed to cut the margin to 14 at the half, getting a tip-in from Andrew Garcia at the buzzer.

Unfortunately, Georgia’s top three scorers—Camara, Wheeler and Kier—went a combined one for 20 from the field, while Smith and Stewart Jr. poured in 24 points combined.

“Tonight, we missed a lot of bunnies (easy shots) and we missed a lot of free throws,” Fagan said. “We continued to fight hard, but we could have done a better job bringing the energy.”

Boxscore

Georgia hits the road for the first time all year next Wednesday, when the Bulldogs travel to LSU.