Mississippi St. rolls over Georgia St.

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Posted 7:03AM on Thursday, December 19, 2002

JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI - Mario Austin hasn't needed to play his way back into shape after missing the first six games of the season. The junior forward had 24 points and 10 rebounds Wednesday night as No. 16 Mississippi State extended its winning streak to seven games with a 78-54 victory over Georgia State. Austin's season had a delayed start while the NCAA sorted through questions about his academic eligibility. Apparently, he wasn't just sitting around waiting to hear if he would be able to play. ``I never did get out of shape,'' the 6-foot-9, 260-pound Austin said. ``I kept working out, running, running the court, practicing with these guys. I wouldn't allow myself to get out of shape, because I knew sooner or later the situation was going to work out.'' Austin followed up his 28-point performance against Xavier last Saturday with another stellar game, despite the Panthers' best efforts to crowd the paint. Austin had 14 points in the first half against Georgia State's zone. The Panthers went man-to-man to start the second half, but that didn't work either. He scored the Bulldogs' first six points of the second half, the last two on a feathery finger roll that put Mississippi State up 49-39. Austin was 10-for-16 from the field. ``He played OK, not great,'' Bulldogs coach Rick Stansbury said, apparently trying to keep his big man hungry. Timmy Bowers scored 11 points and Derrick Zimmerman had 10 assists for the Bulldogs (7-1), who held Georgia State (3-4) scoreless for more than seven minutes in the second half after the Panthers pulled within eight points. The Panthers scored just 17 points in the second half, shooting 28 percent. ``Defensively, we weren't very sharp in the first half as evidenced by their 37 points,'' Stansbury said. ``I thought in the second half things picked up for us defensively.'' The Bulldogs also dominated the glass, outrebounding Georgia State 52-21. The Bulldogs had more offensive rebounds (25) than the Panthers had total boards. ``They're a lot better than us,'' Georgia State coach Lefty Driesell said. ``If we played them 10 times they would beat us. We did the best we could.'' Reserve forward Cedric Patton led the Panthers with 21 points, including 17 in 11 minutes in the first half. Lamont McIntosh had 12 for Georgia State, which has lost three straight and next plays at No. 7 Oklahoma. The Bulldogs also have Oklahoma next on their schedule. They play the Sooners on Dec. 28 in New Orleans, but certainly could not be accused of looking past Georgia State. ``We're looking forward to that game,'' Zimmerman said. ``The guy from ESPN said this was probably going to be a slip-up game for us because they thought we were going to be looking ahead to Oklahoma. But now we got Oklahoma as our next game and it's going to be a challenge for us.'' The Bulldogs traveled 125 miles from their Starkville campus to play in Jackson, the state's capital and largest city, for the first time in four years. The Bulldogs gave the sellout crowd of 6,592 in the Mississippi Coliseum a good show, taking the lead early and controlling the game with their athletic perimeter players complementing Austin's inside game. McIntosh hit consecutive 3-pointers for Georgia State to cut the lead to 56-48 with 10 minutes left. Mississippi State answered by scoring the next 15 points, six by Winsome Frazier, to go up 71-48 with 3 minutes left. Walk-on Seth Cannon capped the Bulldogs' seventh straight double-digit win by banking home a shot from 10 feet beyond the midcourt line at the buzzer. Patton kept Georgia State close by going 5-for-6 from the field, including three 3-pointers, in the first half. The rest of the Panthers were 9-for-25 as Mississippi State took a 43-37 halftime lead.