Miles Kelly scored a game-high 22 points and added 12 rebounds to help lead Georgia Tech to a 67-59 upset win over visiting No. 21 Mississippi State on Tuesday in Atlanta.
Kyle Sturdivant added 12 points for Georgia Tech (3-2). Naithan George also had 11 points for the Yellow Jackets in the inaugural ACC/SEC Challenge.
Mississippi State (6-1) was paced by Josh Hubbard, who had 17 points. Dashawn Davis scored 12 points for the Bulldogs, who struggled to find a rhythm on offense, connecting on just 20 of their 65 shots from the field (30.8 percent) and just seven of their 30 3-point tries (23.3 percent).
D.J. Jeffries added 10 points for the Bulldogs, while Jimmy Bell Jr. grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds.
The Yellow Jackets never trailed as first-year head coach Damon Stoudamire posted the first power-conference win of his Georgia Tech tenure.
A Hubbard basket knotted the score at 13 with 11:03 remaining in the first half, the last time Mississippi State was level. Georgia Tech followed with an 11-2 run that was punctuated with a Kelly 3-pointer, one of his four in the game.
Georgia Tech led by as many as 16 in the second half before a late Mississippi State run cut the deficit to eight on a pair of free throws from Davis with 2:44 remaining.
Mississippi State missed its next four shots as the Yellow Jackets pulled away at the foul line.
The double-double for Kelly, a junior, was the first of his career. It was his third game this season scoring at least 20 points.
Georgia Tech held a 39-26 lead at halftime, largely due to the Yellow Jackets' defense holding Mississippi State to 10-of-33 shooting (30.3 percent) from the field and 2-of-10 success from 3-point range. Meanwhile, Georgia Tech hit half of its 28 field-goal attempts, and Kelly had 14 first-half points.
Tuesday was the first of two straight home games against ranked teams for Georgia Tech, who face No.7 Duke on Saturday. The Bulldogs host Southern University on Sunday.
--Field Level Media
Mississippi State | Georgia Tech | |
Josh Hubbard 17 | Scoring | Miles Kelly 22 |
Jimmy Bell Jr. 2 | Assists | Baye Ndongo 3 |
Jimmy Bell Jr. 13 | Rebounds | Miles Kelly 12 |
Dashawn Davis 5 | Free Throws Made | Miles Kelly 8 |
Dashawn Davis 3 | Steals | Baye Ndongo 2 |
Shawn Jones Jr. 1 | Blocks | Ebenezer Dowuona 1 |
Team | Points | FG% | 3PM-3PA | FTM-FTA | Assists | Rebounds | Blocks | Steals | Turnovers |
Mississippi State | 59 | 30.8 | 7-30 | 12-16 | 5 | 39 | 2 | 8 | 13 |
Georgia Tech | 67 | 34.4 | 8-27 | 17-23 | 8 | 42 | 5 | 7 | 12 |