KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The University of Tennessee men’s basketball team registered a commanding 68-56 win Tuesday night in a top-15 showdown with No. 14 Mississippi State in front of a sold-out crowd at Food City Center.
No. 6/7 Tennessee (17-2, 4-2 SEC) led from start to finish in the first-ever ranked clash between the two longtime league opponents. Fifth-year guard Chaz Lanier paced the victors with a game-high 23 points.
The Volunteers made three straight shots in the opening minutes, with 3-pointers by Lanier bookending the stretch, to grab an 8-0 edge after just 2:45. They pushed the lead to 15-4 at the 11:41 mark and held Mississippi State (15-4, 3-3 SEC) to a 1-of-13 start from the floor that included nine consecutive misses.
Tennessee pushed the lead to 13, 19-6, with 8:21 left in the frame, at which point the Bulldogs were 2-of-16 on field goals. Lanier continued his hot long-range shooting, pushing his ledger to 4-of-6, to help the home team stretch the margin to 14, 25-11, with 6:09 to play in the half. Mississippi State scored the next five points and the Volunteers then closed the half on a 9-0 run in the final 2:49 to take an 18-point advantage, 34-16, into the locker room.
Defensively, head coach Rick Barnes‘ team held the Bulldogs to a 6-of-27 (22.2 percent) clip in the first 20 minutes, including a 3-of-15 (20.0 percent) tally from deep. At the other end, Tennessee went 12-of-29 (41.4 percent) overall, 6-of-15 (40.0 percent) on 3-pointers and a perfect 4-of-4 at the line. It also recorded a 9-0 margin in fast-break points.
Mississippi State, aided by back-to-back 3-pointers from senior guard Claudell Harris Jr., scored the first eight points coming out of the break. The Bulldogs scored one fewer point in the first four-and-a-half minutes of the second half than they did in the whole first frame, with their extended 15-4 run to begin the session making 38-31 with 15:34 to play.
Tennessee, though, countered by holding Mississippi State without a basket for 6:23, forcing five consecutive misses. Sparked by the second made 3-pointer of junior forward Felix Okpara’s career, the Volunteers went on a 14-2 run, including notching seven straight points in 1:54, to push the lead to 19, 52-33, with 9:38 remaining.
Nearly three minutes later, with 6:46 to play, Tennessee claimed its largest cushion of the night, 59-39. The Bulldogs, who got no closer than 15 until the final 110 seconds of the eventual 12-point decision, finished with their lowest point total of 2024-25.
Lanier, who made at least five 3-pointers for the sixth time in his lone season at Tennessee, scored nine more points than any other player in the game. Senior guard Jordan Gainey and Jahmai Mashack contributed 10 apiece of the Volunteers, with the former 4-of-4 at the line and the latter 2-of-2 from long range.
Okpara concluded the night with nine points to go along with a season- and game-best 12 rebounds. Senior guard Zakai Zeigler totaled nine points, a game-high seven assists and a game-leading five steals, four of which came in the first 10 minutes.
Sophomore guard Josh Hubbard paced the Bulldogs with 14 points, but Tennessee limited him to a 5-of-16 field-goal clip. Junior guard Riley Kugel recorded 12 points, with the Volunteers holding him to a 3-of-12 mark from the floor. Senior forward R.J. Melendez added 10 points, all but two in the second half, for Mississippi State.
The Volunteers, who went 12-of-13 (92.3 percent) at the stripe, allowed the Bulldogs just a 19-of-56 (33.9 percent) ledger from the field in the triumph.
Up next for Tennessee is a trip to Auburn, Ala., where it takes on top-ranked Auburn in a top-10 clash, live on ESPN from Neville Arena, which will host the season’s first College GameDay that morning.
