STARKVILLE, Miss. – The University of Tennessee men’s basketball team turned in a dominant 73-64 road triumph Wednesday night over Mississippi State at Humphrey Coliseum.
Senior guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie paced Tennessee (17-7, 7-4 SEC) with 18 points in a game it never trailed and led by as many as 23.
The Volunteers opened with dunks on each of their first four possessions, but could not create early separation. Mississippi State (11-13, 3-8 SEC) junior guard Josh Hubbard scored 14 points on 6-of-8 shooting in the first 7:42 to make the score 16 apiece at that time.
Tennessee countered with seven consecutive points, including a fifth dunk, in just 60 seconds. The Bulldogs then scored the next six points—half on a long-range shot by Hubbard on his next shot—to make it 23-22 with 9:30 on the first-half timer. They pulled level at 25 just 91 seconds after that, but Tennessee then grabbed control of the game.
The Volunteers went on a 12-0 run in 5:17 during a stretch of 6:54 in which they held Mississippi State scoreless and forced nine consecutive misses. That helped them take an 11-point edge, 39-28, into the locker room. Hubbard scored 20 points in the first half on 8-of-13 shooting, including a 3-of-6 mark from deep, but Tennessee held his teammates to eight points on a 3-of-17 clip, with a 1-of-7 tally beyond the arc.
Gillespie scored seven points in the first 114 seconds of the second half, sparking an 11-2 run to put the Volunteers ahead by 20, 50-30, with 16:39 to go. The onslaught continued from there, as Tennessee—aided by holding Mississippi State without a made field goal for 4:08—stretched the margin to a game-high 23, 63-40, with 10:14 left.
The Bulldogs responded with an 18-0 run, hitting seven straight field goals (two from deep) and two free throws in 4:38, to cut their deficit to five, 63-58, with 5:15 on the clock. That came during a period in which Tennessee missed nine field-goal attempts in a row and went scoreless for 5:16.
The Volunteers, though, regrouped and scored the next eight points—six came on three-point plays by freshman forward Nate Ament—in 81 seconds to make it 71-58 with just 3:37 remaining. Mississippi State never got closer than nine the rest of the way and Tennessee improved to 3-1 in its last four SEC road games.
Gillespie added five assists, four rebounds and one steal to his team-best point total. Ament scored 16 points, half of which came in the last five minutes after the Mississippi State run, and dished out a career-high-tying five assists.
Redshirt sophomore forward J.P. Estrella tallied 12 points, seven rebounds and a career-high three blocks, the latter mark leading all players. Sophomore guard Bishop Boswell set a career best with eight assists, plus grabbed seven rebounds and chipped in four points.
Hubbard finished as the only Bulldog in double figures, as he dropped 31 points on 13-of-24 shooting. He amassed the most points and made field goals by a Tennessee opposing player in the last two seasons. Hubbard shot 4-of-9 from 3-point range and split his two free throws.
The rest of the Mississippi State roster totaled 33 points on a 12-of-37 field-goal count, including a 3-of-13 ledger from 3-point range.
Tennessee recorded a 42-24 advantage in paint points and logged its second-best free-throw clip of the season with an 83.3 percent (15-of-18) mark.
The Volunteers are back in action for the first of two straight home games Saturday at 6 p.m. when they host LSU at Food City Center, live on SEC Network. Vol Network coverage begins at 5:30pm on 103.1FM WIKQ.
