King Grace shines as Mississippi State cruises past Alabama State

Mississippi State dominated Alabama State 94–56 for its most comfortable win of the season, highlighted by a career night from freshman guard King Grace.

Mississippi State Bulldogs guard King Grace (23) goes to the basket against Utah Utes forward Kendyl Sanders (13) and forward Keanu Dawes (8) during the first half at Delta Center. | Rob Gray-Imagn Images

Anyone who has watched a college basketball game can tell it’s a stressful time for the coaches pacing in front of their own bench.

No game is completely stress-free, but there are games where there isn’t much stress for the head coach. Mississippi State men’s basketball hasn’t had many of those this season, but did get one Monday night in a 94-56 win against Alabama State.

“It’s the first thing I said in the locker room just to the coaches that we hadn’t had a stress free win this season that I can recall,” Bulldogs’ coach Chris Jans said. “It was nice, and it was nice to have one. We didn’t have a lot of stress.” 

That’s exactly the type of game the Bulldogs needed with the start of SEC games next up on the docket.

Freshman Shines

Freshman guard King Grace easily had his best game of the season Monday night. His 14 points were a career-high, but he also only missed three field goals in 16 minutes of play. The Oak Cliff, Texas native was also 2-for-3 from beyond the arch. Most importantly, though, he had no turnovers.

“I’m happy that he had some success out there,” Jans said. “He put the ball in the basket and had a couple nice drives and made a three. He continues to grow. He’s learning every day, and is a great young man.”

“It was just exciting for me to get out there and get my legs loose,” Grace said after the game. “It was a great feeling. I guess my shot was working. I was just getting into transition and letting my teammates get me open. So, it was just easy shots.”

Grace is only averaging 9.8 minutes per game this season and Monday was his most playing time this season. It’s a sign that Jans’ worries about how his team was practicing have been improved.

“Just to stay consistent. Stay competitive, keep competing, keep playing hard and just the things usually freshmen don’t do,” Grace said about what coaches were looking from him in practices. “Just stay consistent in practices and keep doing what I'm doing. It's going to flip, and it's going to click.”

It certainly clicked for Grace on Monday night inside Humphrey Coliseum.

Top Performers

• Josh Hubbard: 22 points (9-13), 4-7 3PT, 4 assists, 3 steals
• Achor Achor: 11 points (3-5), 8 rebounds (2 off.), 1 assist, 2 blocks
• Quincy Ballard: 8 points (4-6), 15 rebounds (4 off.), 2 blocks
• Ja’Borri McGhee: 10 points (3-8), 3 rebounds, 1 assist
• King Grace: 14 points (6-9), 2-3 3PT, 1 assist, 1 steal

Next Up

Mississippi State (8-5) starts SEC action on Saturday. The Bulldogs will travel to Austin to face Texas (9-4) at 5 p.m. on SEC Network.