Men’s Hoops Falls at No. 5 Tennessee, 71-54

Tuesday, March 5

Knoxville, Tenn.

8:00 PM

Mississippi State

21-9 (9-8SEC)

#5 Tennessee

27-3 (15-2SEC)

Mississippi State

Tennessee

Men’s Hoops Falls at No. 5 Tennessee, 71-54

March 05, 2019 | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

KNOXVILLE, Tennessee – Mississippi State was handed a 71-54 defeat by SEC frontrunner and No. 5 Tennessee on Tuesday at Thompson-Boling Arena.

The setback dropped the Bulldogs (21-9, 9-8 SEC) into a seventh place tie with Ole Miss in the SEC standings. Both teams are a half-game behind Florida who plays LSU on Wednesday. The two schools also trail Auburn and South Carolina by a full game. The victory enabled Tennessee (27-3, 15-2 SEC) to creep a half-game ahead of LSU for the top spot.

Tyson Carter dropped in 14 points, a career-best seven rebounds and handed out three assists. It marked the fifth time in the last six games that Carter has reached double figures. He was 5-of-11 from the floor.

Reggie Perry secured 10 points and 12 rebounds en route to his team-high eighth double-double on the season. He grabbed seven of his game-leading 12 rebounds on the offensive end. Perry has tucked away a double-double in consecutive games and has seven of his eight double-doubles versus SEC opponents.

Robert Woodard II fired in a career-high tying 10 points and added seven rebounds.

Quinndary Weatherspoon was bottled up for a season-low seven points and misfired on nine of his 12 shot attempts. Aric Holman tallied five points and seven rebounds, while Lamar Peters came away with six points.

For the contest, MSU hit 19-of-57 shots from the field (33.3 percent), 4-of-16 shots from three-point range (25.0 percent) and 12-of-22 shots from the foul line (54.5 percent).

Tennessee countered with a 26-of-61 mark from the field (42.6 percent), a 6-of-23 mark from three-point range (26.1 percent) and a 13-of-17 mark from the foul line (76.5 percent).

Mississippi State had eight assists and 17 turnovers, while the Volunteers had 17 assists and 15 turnovers.

Tennessee was fueled by Admiral Schofield (18 points) and Grant Williams (14 points, 10 rebounds). James Bowden (12 points) also reached double figures for the Volunteers.

FROM THE BENCH WITH COACH HOWLAND
"That was obviously a tough loss. We have only had two really tough losses in terms of being beaten soundly – one at Kentucky and one at Tennessee today. We did a good job fighting back but had too many turnovers in the first half. We could have had a chance to be closer than the six point deficit that we went into halftime."

"This snowballed, it's almost like the basket got smaller because we had a number of good looks early. Then, they capitalized on turnovers. The turnovers hurt us – 17 turnovers. They really picked up the pressure on the ball in the second half, which really extended that a lot further and made it tougher for us to run our offense. Credit them, Tennessee is a really good team. They're a team that has a chance to go a long way in the NCAA Tournament this year without a doubt. They're very deep, skilled, tough and really play well together."

MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
The two teams were tied twice and traded the lead six times during the opening half. Tyson Carter opened the contest with consecutive three-pointers to give the Bulldogs a 6-4 edge with 17:39 remaining.

Mississippi State carried a 15-14 advantage after a Quinndary Weatherspoon trey from the top of the key with 12:13 left.

The Volunteers responded with a 10-0 spurt sparked by back-to-back three-pointers and capped by a Kyle Alexander dunk to make it 24-15 at the 7:59 mark.

Mississippi State countered with 10 of the next 12 points to bring the margin back to 26-25 with 3:29 to go. Reggie Perry, Robert Woodard II and Carter provided layups, while Abdul Ado converted on a jump hook in the lane. Weatherspoon followed his own miss with an offensive putback heading into the final media timeout.

Tennessee would carry a 31-25 lead into the locker room and stretched the advantage back to double digits inside the opening 2:37 of the second half.

The Volunteers would lead by as many as 24 points, 61-37 at the 5:42 mark. Mississippi State sliced the deficit by 10 points and drew as close as 68-54 on a Woodard II putback dunk inside the final minute.

UP NEXT
The Bulldogs conclude the 2018-19 regular season and play host to Texas A&M on Saturday. Tip time is scheduled for 1 p.m. from Humphrey Coliseum with Senior Day ceremonies preceding the game. The matchup will be televised by ESPN2 and available online through the WatchESPN platform.

Visit www.HailState.com for the latest news and information on the men's basketball program. Fans also can follow the program on its social media outlets by searching 'HailStateMBK' on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.