No. 21 Mississippi State 71, Virginia Tech 65

Posted 5:48AM on Friday 31st December 2004 ( 20 years ago )

NEW ORLEANS (AP) Another big night for Lawrence Roberts led to another victory for Mississippi State. Roberts scored 25 points and grabbed 19 rebounds as the No. 21 Bulldogs rallied to beat Virginia Tech 71-65 in the Sugar Bowl Classic on Thursday night. ``I just went out there and tried to get the win,'' Roberts said. Roberts, the nation's top active career rebounder who's also in the Top 10 among active career scorers, understand his place on the team. ``Every shot that goes up, he goes after the rebound,'' Mississippi State coach Rick Stansbury said. ``That's his role, to rebound every basketball and I think he does that as well as anyone in the country. I think he has the ability to play on the perimeter some. He can shoot the 3, but his bread is buttered on the inside.'' Marcus Campbell added 12 points and Winsome Frazier 11 for Mississippi State (12-2), which had been averaging 75.3 points a game but shot just 38.6 percent from the field. The Bulldogs made 67.6 percent (25-37) of their foul shots including 81 percent in the second half to stretch their winning streak to six. Mississippi State also extended its road winning streak to an NCAA-leading 15 games. Virginia Tech was 5-for 11 from the free-throw line. Carlos Dixon led the Hokies (6-5) with 19 points, Coleman Collins added 16 and Zabian Dowdell and Jamon Gordon each scored 10. Deron Washington, the top-scoring freshman in the ACC who averages 10 points, was held to just four points. The Bulldogs outrebounded Virginia Tech 49-29 and outscored them in the paint 36-18. ``We're just not physically mature enough or strong enough yet,'' Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg said. ``I told our guys before the game that we're a basketball team that's kind of like raising a child. We crawl a couple of steps, but when we try to stand up, we fall down. Eventually we'll be able to walk and stand up for 40 minutes. We did it for about 30 minutes tonight.'' Virginia Tech opened the second half with a 7-4 run to take a 37-33 lead. The Bulldogs then rallied with a 19-4 run, fueled by 10-for-10 shooting from the free-throw line, to take a 50-39 lead with 13:24 remaining. ``We came out in the second half when we were down by four and made a run to put us up by seven, and that was a huge run to take back control of the game,'' Stansbury said. The Hokies came right back and pulled to 54-53 on a 3-pointer by Dixon with 7:35 left. A 3-pointer by Collins tied it at 56 with 6:40 to go. Virginia Tech's offense then went cold as the Hokies went scoreless until Collins' jumper with 2:31 left. By that time, Mississippi State was up 65-58. The Hokies have lost five of their last six. The Bulldogs got off to a fast start and outscored Virginia Tech 14-3 during the first eight minutes and outrebounded them 18-7. The Hokies were 1-for-14 from the field during that stretch and missed three free throws. But Tech came back, outscoring Mississippi State 27-15 down the stretch. A long 3-pointer by Dowdell at the buzzer gave the Hokies a 30-29 lead at halftime.

http://accesswdun.com/article/2004/12/144268