December 30, 2004

NEW ORLEANS - Despite getting off to a slow start, the Virginia Tech Hokies gave Mississippi State a tussle all the way to the final minutes before succumbing to the Bulldogs 71-65 in a Sugar Bowl Basketball Classic game played at the New Orleans Arena on Thursday night in New Orleans.

With the loss, Tech fell to 6-5 on the season. Mississippi State, ranked No. 21 in one poll and No. 24 in another poll, improved to 12-2 on the season. The Bulldogs' only losses this season came at the hands of two nationally ranked opponents - Syracuse and Arizona.

Tech stayed with the Bulldogs for the majority of the second half and tied the game at 56 on a 3-pointer by center Coleman Collins with a little over seven minutes remaining. But Tech's Jamon Gordon got whistled for an intentional foul on Mississippi State's next possession for a slight shove of Bulldogs' guard Gary Irvin while fighting for a loose ball at midcourt. Irvin made the first free throw and missed the second, but Mississippi State got to keep the ball and Lawrence Roberts scored to give the Bulldogs a 59-56 lead.

That started a 9-0 run for the Bulldogs - and they never trailed again.

"I made a dumb move there," Gordon admitted. "We were chasing the ball and bumping each other. He pushed me. But I shouldn't have done it [shoved Irvin]. He had position. That's on me."

Tech cut the lead to five on two occasions in the final two minutes of the game and cut it to four, 69-65, on a 3-pointer by Carlos Dixon with nine seconds left. But Winsome Frazier drained two free throws with 8.4 seconds left and those two points ended any chance of a Tech comeback.

"A game like this is encouraging, but it's also disappointing," said Dixon, who led the Hokies with 19 points. "It's encouraging because we competed hard after a terrible start, but it's disappointing because we let it slip out of our hands."

Early on, it looked like the Hokies were going to get blown out. Mississippi State jumped out to an 11-0 lead as Tech struggled from the floor. The Hokies missed their first 12 shots and didn't hit a field goal until Collins scored at the 12:18 mark of the first half. At that point, Tech trailed 12-1.

Still, the Hokies climbed back in the game. A 16-5 run toward the end of the first half brought the Hokies within a point, and with five seconds left in the half, Dowdell drained a 3-pointer to give Tech a 30-29 lead heading into the locker room.

"I thought it took a lot of us to get back in the game," Tech coach Seth Greenberg said. "We couldn't score, but we continued to defend and continued to work, and we were able to get back in the game. But I think that took its toll down the stretch."

The Hokies struggled all night with Roberts, Mississippi State's All-American power forward. The 6-foot-9, 240-pound power forward hammered Tech inside. He went into the game averaging nearly 18 points and 11 rebounds a game and didn't disappoint, scoring a game-high 25 points and grabbing a Sugar Bowl Basketball Classic record 19 rebounds. As a team, Mississippi State only shot 38.6 percent from the floor and committed 17 turnovers, but thanks to Roberts, the Bulldogs out-rebounded the Hokies 49-29, including 22 offensive rebounds.

Dixon hit 7-of-14 from the floor, including 3-of-8 from beyond the 3-point arc, to pace four players in double figures. Collins finished with 16 points on 7-of-11 from the floor, while both Gordon and Dowdell finished with 10 each.

The Hokies, who have played four games in 11 days, now get a bit of a break before returning to ACC play. Tech gets the next eight days off before heading to Tallahassee, Fla., on Jan. 8^th to take on Florida State in its first ACC road game. Tip-off is slated for 7 p.m.