Men’s Hoops SEC Winning Streak Snapped by No. 15 Kentucky, 80-72

Tuesday, February 4

Lexington, Ky.

8:00 PM

Mississippi State

14-8 (5-4SEC)

#15 Kentucky

17-5 (7-2SEC)

Mississippi State

Kentucky

Photo by: UK Athletics

Men’s Hoops SEC Winning Streak Snapped by No. 15 Kentucky, 80-72

February 05, 2020 | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)Quotes (PDF)

by Mikaela Elizondo, Graduate Assistant/Communications

LEXINGTON, Kentucky – D.J. Stewart Jr. and Robert Woodard II registered 15 points apiece, but the Mississippi State men's basketball team had its five-game SEC winning streak snapped during an 80-72 defeat to No. 15 Kentucky on Tuesday at Rupp Arena.

The setback sent the Bulldogs (14-8, 5-4) into a three-way tie with Tennessee and Texas A&M for sixth place in the SEC standings and a half-game behind Florida and South Carolina. Mississippi State was handed its first SEC defeat since a 60-59 buzzer beater loss to LSU on Jan. 11.

The win enabled Kentucky (17-5, 7-2 SEC) to move into a second-place tie with Auburn. Both squads trail SEC frontrunner LSU by a 1.5 games.

Stewart Jr. and Woodard II each relied on 6-for-10 shooting clips to fuel their 15-point performances. Stewart Jr. has dialed up double figures in four of his last five outings before he fouled out with under a minute to go. MSU fell to 9-2 when Stewart Jr. provides 10-plus points.

Woodard II came away with 11 of his 15 points after halftime and grabbed seven rebounds. The Columbus, Mississippi, native made it a career-best four consecutive games with double digit points.

Reggie Perry chipped in 14 points and eight rebounds. The reigning Naismith National and SEC Player of the Week was limited to a 4-of-16 shooting performance but converted on 6-of-9 at the foul line before he fouled out.

Tyson Carter notched 12 points and six rebounds to make it six of his last seven games off the bench with 10-plus points.

Nick Weatherspoon managed nine points, four rebounds and two assists followed by Abdul Ado's seven points, 11 rebounds and four blocks. Ado's four rejections allowed him to eclipse Rickey Brown (1977-78-79-80) into sixth place on MSU's all-time list.

For the contest, MSU hit 25-of-68 shots from the field (36.8 percent), made 5-of-16 shots on three-point attempts (31.3 percent) and was 17-of-21 shots from the foul line (81.0 percent).

Mississippi State scored 22 of the game's 26 points on second-chance opportunities and held a 40-37 rebounding advantage. The Bulldogs had five assists and 10 turnovers, while the Wildcats had 14 assists and eight turnovers.

Kentucky shot 24-of-45 overall (44.4 percent), 1-of-10 on three-pointers (10.0 percent) and 31-of-36 at the charity stripe (86.1 percent). The Wildcats had three players in double figures led by a career-high 27 points and 11 rebounds from Nick Richards, followed by 21 points and four rebounds from Immanuel Quickley. The Quickley-Richards combination was a combined 27-of-29 at the foul line. EJ Montgomery added 12 points, eight rebounds and three steals.

FROM THE BENCH WITH COACH HOWLAND
"They're good. This is a very, very good Kentucky team. Their guard play is outstanding, they don't turn it over … I credit their defense because their defense got their offense going by 25 points in transition. I think we can play so much better than we did today, and yet it's a six-point game with 2:34 to go. We make an ill-advised foul and put, I forget who went to the line, it might've been Montgomery. He misses them both, and they get the rebound on a missed free throw which is like the kiss of death but give them credit. They're tough, they're well-coached and we knew we'd get their best shot coming off a tough loss at Auburn."

"We've got to bounce back from this and be ready to go here because we're halfway through the league. We've got nine games left, five on the road and four at home. Every one of them is critical honestly. We're trying to find a way to the NCAA tournament, and this was a great opportunity to help that. That didn't happen, but it didn't hurt us that much because we're playing against a great team on their home floor which is going to be a really tough out in the NCAA Tournament against anybody that's got to match up."

MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Kentucky opened up a seven-point edge during the initial 2:10 of the contest fueled by a Tyrese Maxey dunk, an Immanuel Quickley traditional three-point play and an E.J. Montgomery layup.

The Bulldogs responded with 9-2 spurt of its own over the next 1:55 to knot the score at 9-9 with 15:34 remaining. D.J. Stewart Jr. provided a layup and trey to get Mississippi State started, while Reggie Perry added a jumper and Abdul Ado hit a layup off an offensive rebound.

Ahead 12-11 at the 14:10 mark, the Wildcats got a trio of baskets from Nate Sestina off the bench to stretch their lead back to 22-14 with 8:16 to go.

Once again, Stewart Jr. stabilized the Bulldogs with a steal and a coast-to-coast layup. He also knocked down a right wing three-pointer on an offensive rebound to make it 26-21 with 3:19 left.

Kentucky took a 31-23 edge into the locker room on the strength of a 22-10 edge in paint points and an 11-4 advantage in transition points.

The Wildcats scored their first five points on foul shots to start the second 20 minutes and went up 38-25 on a Maxey layup with 17:00 on the clock.

Up 60-49 at the 5:54 mark, Mississippi State pieced together an Abdul Ado tipin coupled with a Tyson Carter three-pointer from the left wing to draw within 60-54 with 4:36 remaining.

The Bulldogs stayed within six points, 64-58 with 2:24 left, but a Nick Richards offensive rebound off a pair of Montgomery missed free throws proved to be a key play.

Kentucky was a flawless 16-of-16 on free throws to close out the eight-point win and collect its 14th consecutive victory over the Bulldogs.

UP NEXT
Mississippi State returns home to meet Vanderbilt on Saturday. Tip time is slated for 7:30 p.m. CT from Humphrey Coliseum. The game will be televised by SEC Network and carried online courtesy of the Watch ESPN 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.