Starkville, Miss. – Garrison Brooks led four Bulldogs in double figures Friday evening with 18 points to lead Mississippi State to a 69-66 victory over the Furman Paladins in men's basketball action from Humphrey Coliseum.

Furman drops to 7-5 on the season while Mississippi State improves to 8-3 overall.

Alex Hunter scored a career high 30 points to lead the Paladins on 11-of-15 shooting and 8-for-11 behind the 3-point line. Jalen Slawson contributed 13 points after shooting 6-of-11 overall to go with eight rebounds, four assists and one steal. Conley Garrison provided 10 points, four assists, three rebounds and one steal. Mike Bothwell dished out a team leading five assists.

Brooks finished the game shooting 6-of-9 from the field to lead the Bulldogs with 18 points. Iverson Molinar and D.J. Jeffries each scored 14 points. Shakeel Moore turned in 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting, six rebounds and four assists. Andersson Garcia tied Moore with four assists.

Mississippi State closed out the game's final 2:12 on a 6-0 run and went from trailing 66-63 to leading 69-66. The Bulldogs scored four of their six points at the free throw line with the final one from Jeffries increasing the lead to three with seven seconds remaining. Hunter's game-tying attempt at the buzzer hit the front of the rim.

Mississippi State led by as many as 18 points in the first half after limiting Furman to just five points over nearly a nine-minute stretch while going on an 19-5 run. The Bulldogs held their largest lead of the game, 29-11, with 5:24 remaining after a layup by Moore. The Paladins answered with a 13-4 run of their own and cut Mississippi State's lead down to 33-24 at the 1:09 mark on a 3-pointer from Joe Anderson.

A pair of free throws by Brooks with 44 seconds left gave the Bulldogs a 35-24 lead at halftime.

Hunter scored 17 of his game high 30 points in the second half on 6-of-8 shooting while connecting on 5-of-7 3-pointers.

Mississippi State maintained its double digit lead for the first five minutes of the second half before a 3-pointer by Alex Williams cut Furman's deficit down to 43-34 with 15:01 to go. The Paladins got to within nine points two more times with the last coming at 47-38 with 12:35 remaining on Anderson's layup.

The layup sparked a 12-0 run for Furman over the next three minutes. Slawson gave the Paladins the lead back at 48-47 with 9:31 left following his layup. Hunter connected on one 3-pointer during that run but came back with three more and gave Furman its largest lead of the game, 57-51, at the 7:13 mark.

The Bulldogs managed to trim the lead down to one, 57-56, with 5:46 to go after a layup by Jeffries, only to see the Paladins score seven of the next nine points to go back in front 64-58 when Garrison made 2-of-3 free throws. Furman would hold a 66-63 lead with 2:12 remaining in the game when Slawson knocked down a jumper.

The Paladins concluded the game shooting 54.3 percent (25-of-46) from the field and 51.9 percent (14-of-27) behind the 3-point line. Furman held a 10-4 advantage in fast break points and 11-9 in bench points.

The Paladins play their final non-conference game of the season on Tuesday, December 21 hosting Presbyterian at 7 p.m. from Timmons Arena.