Tennessee basketball improved to 9-8 and 2-3 in the SEC, as The Volunteers beat Mississippi State Bulldogs 80-75 in Starkville. It was their first road win.
Detrick Mostella had a career day with 24 points while Kevin Punter added 23 points and five assists, and even Robert Hubbs III came on strong with 14 points on 6-of-8 shooting as the Tennessee Vols beat the Mississippi State Bulldogs for their first road victory of the season.
Rick Barnes’s squad did what it usually does, jumping out to a big first-half lead and nearly blowing it in the second half.
Tennessee led 38-27 at halftime, and the Bulldogs cut it to one point in the second half, likely causing many Vols fans to think, “Here we go again.”
But unlike those previous games, the Vols did not panic when things got close. Thanks to sloppy play by Mississippi State under first-year head coach Ben Howland, which included untimely fouls and terrible three-point shooting, Tennessee never allowed the Bulldogs to take the lead in the second half.
In a battle between two teams showing an inability to close out games, it was inevitable that somebody would win, and Tennessee came out on top.
Perhaps most impressive was the fact that the Vols did it with out Armani Moore, their best inside presence, and with a terrible day from Admiral Schofield, their second best inside presence.
The result of that was 21 points and 10 rebounds from Gavin Ware of the Bulldogs, while they out-rebounded the Vols overall 40 to 32. However, Quinndary Weatherspoon was the only player on Mississippi State who helped keep them in the game, scoring 23 points on 8-of-15 shooting.
Malik Newman going 3-of-15 and Craig Sword going 2-of-8 was simply not going to cut it, even if the Vols did not have any inside presence.
This was a big win for Tennessee in terms of psyche and confidence. They needed to be able to close out a game, and although the Bulldogs were 7-8 and have now fallen to 7-9, this was the perfect team to do this against. After all, they played the Texas A&M Aggies and Kentucky Wildcats down to the wire.
Up next for the Vols is a rivalry showdown with the Vanderbilt Commodores at home on Wednesday night. Can they keep up the momentum? We’ll find out soon enough.