Georgia (7-0) vs. Mississippi State (5-3)

Wednesday, December 30, at 7:00 p.m. ET

Stegeman Coliseum (1,638) in Athens, Ga.

Series History: UGA leads, 58-56

Last Meeting: MSU, 91-59, on Jan. 18, 2020

Watch: SEC Network (Mike Morgan, play-by-play; Debbie Antonelli, analyst)

Listen: Georgia Bulldog Sports Network Flagship: WSB AM 750 Atlanta; XM: 382; Internet: 972 (Scott Howard, play-by-play; Chuck Dowdle, analyst; Adam Gillespie, producer)

The Starting Five

• At 7-0, UGA is off to its best start since the Bulldogs opened the 1982-83 season – which culminated with a trip to the Final Four – with a 9-0 record.

• UGA’s eight-game winning streak, which dates back to last season, equals the sixth-best string of success in school history and is the longest since 2011-12.

• UGA has won the opening tip in each game this season and is 16-2 when doing so since the beginning of last season. UGA was 7-14 when losing the tip in 2019-20.

• Sahvir Wheeler’s three double-digit assist outings in the first three games of the season were as many as any SEC player posted in all of 2019-20.

• UGA’s roster features eight newcomers with representative in every class – two freshmen, a sophomore, two juniors and a trio of graduate transfers.

The Opening Tip

Georgia opens SEC action on Wednesday night by hosting Mississippi State at Stegeman Coliseum. The Bulldogs are 7-0 on the season, one of 25 remaining undefeated Division I teams in the nation as of Monday and one of only 10 with seven or more wins.

Georgia is off to its best beginning since the Bulldogs opened their 1982-83 Final Four campaign with a 9-0 mark.

Adding in Georgia’s victory over Ole Miss in last season’s SEC Tournament gives the Bulldogs an active eight-game winning streak. That’s Georgia’s longest stretch of success game wise since securing nine consecutive Ws during the 2010-11 campaign. Calendar-wise, the Bulldogs’ winning streak spans 294 days and is the second-longest in Georgia’s 116 seasons.

The program’s best streak both for number of victories and calendar span are the same – a 16-game stretch covering 399 days over the 1912-13 and 1913-14 seasons.

Keeping An Eye On . . . Entering Tonight’s Game:

Sahvir Wheeler is...

• 9 assists from 200 for his career

Andrew Garcia is...

• 142 points from 1,000 for his career

• 60 rebounds for 500 for his career

Series History With State

Georgia currently leads its all-time series with Mississippi State, 58-56, including a 29-20 advantage in Athens.

In the most recent matchup last Jan. 18 in Starkville, Mississippi State shot 61.7 percent from the field – the best effort of last season against Georgia – en route to a 91-59 win over the Bulldogs.

Toumani Camara scored eight of his 10 points in the opening 7:08 of the contest to help Georgia grab a 15-14 advantage. State then went up for good on a Reggie Perry jumper at the 10:27 mark of the first half.

In the last meeting at Stegeman Coliseum on Feb. 20, 2019, Georgia rallied from a 17-point, second-half deficit to tie the game with less than 10 seconds remaining before dropping a 68-67 decision with a pretty bizarre ending.

After a Tyree Crump 3-pointer with 9.3 seconds remaining tied the game, Quinndary Weatherspoon was fouled with .5 of a second left. After missing his first free throw, Georgia was assessed a technical foul when a fan threw an object onto the floor. Weatherspoon made his next attempt and intentionally missed the third.

Scouting State

Mississippi State arrives at league play with a 5-3 record. The Bulldogs dropped their first two outings of the season to Clemson and Liberty in the Space Coast Challenge in Melbourne, Fla., before rallying to win five of their next six. State’s other setback was a double-overtime decision to Dayton.

Sophomores D.J. Stewart and Iverson Molinar provide the Bulldogs’ with one of the SEC’s best 1-2 scoring combinations. Stewart is averaging 18.3 ppg, while Molinar contributes 17.6 ppg. Tolu Smith also is scoring at a double-digit pace for State, averaging 13.9 ppg and a team-high 8.9 rpg.

Last Time Out

Georgia rallied from a 13-point halftime deficit to outscore Northeastern 44-13 following the intermission en route to a 76-58 win over the Huskies on Dec. 22 and improve to 7-0 on the season.

Andrew Garcia led a quartet of Bulldogs in double digits with 15 points, while Justin Kier added a very thorough linescore of seven points, seven boards, six assists and five steals for Georgia.

Northeastern scored nine points off of Bulldog turnovers to grab a 14-3 lead just over five minutes into the game. That margin bulged to 41-26 with 2:23 left in the half.

After the Huskies scored the first bucket of the second stanza to regain a 15-point edge, Georgia used a 25-3 run over the next 11:21 to go up 57-50. A 10-0 surge moments later put the Bulldogs up by 15 with 4:02 remaining.

Georgia Basketball Unbeaten

With their day-night doubleheader sweep on Dec. 22, the Georgia basketball programs both remained undefeated this season.

The Lady Bulldogs dispatched Appalachian State, 107-44, in the afternoon, their highest scoring output since a 107-75 win over Georgia State on Dec. 28, 2000.

Later that evening, the Bulldogs outscored Northeastern 44-13 – yes 13 – en route to a 76-58 victory.

Of 325 D-I schools with both men’s and women’s basketball programs, Georgia is one of two with both still undefeated. Michigan, with a 7-0 men’s team and a 5-0 women’s record, is the other.

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