Mississippi State
12-5,1-3SEC
#8 Kentucky
13-3,3-1SEC
State Drops Decision At No. 8 Kentucky
January 17, 2024 | Men's Basketball
Dawgs fall 90-77 on the road.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Tolu Smith III had a strong night and Mississippi State staged an early second-half rally to give itself a chance, but the Bulldogs ultimately fell 90-77 on the road at No. 8 Kentucky on Wednesday at Rupp Arena.
Smith scored a season-best 26 points to set the pace for State while also bringing down eight rebounds, and the Bulldogs used a 14-2 run over the first three minutes of the second half to pull within six of the Wildcats. However, in the end, Kentucky was able to hold off the Maroon and White.
"We obviously didn't get off to a great start," MSU head coach Chris Jans said. "It was 15-5 [in favor of Kentucky] before we woke up. I was very disappointed with our mindset and how we started the game and, for the most part, how we played in the whole first half.
"We had a decision to make at halftime if we were going to put up a stand or just go away. If there's one silver lining, we came out and punched back a little bit. We made them call a timeout and we closed the gap, but we were unable to sustain it and they eventually closed us out."
Free-throw shooting proved to be a decisive factor in the contest. MSU got to the charity stripe for just 10 attempts in the game, making six of them. Meanwhile Kentucky scored 23 points from the line off of 27 attempts.
"We didn't shoot it great at the line and they did," Jans said. "That was a huge, huge difference in the game amongst a bunch of other things."
Antonio Reeves led Kentucky with a 27-point performance. Three other Wildcats reached double figures. Rob Dillingham scored 16, Tre Mitchell tallied 15 and Aaron Bradshaw added 11.
For State, Trey Fort joined Smith in double-figure scoring as Fort totaled 13 points off the bench. Cameron Matthews had eight points for State and wasn't far from a double-double as he also collected eight rebounds. Matthews also contributed six assists, a block and a steal in the defeat.
MSU will attempt to bounce back from Wednesday's loss this weekend. State is set to host Vanderbilt on Saturday. Tip time at Humphrey Coliseum is set for 2:30 p.m. and the game will be televised by SEC Network.
