Rapid Reaction: Tennessee pulls away from Mississippi State to advance to SEC Tournament semifinals

After a close first half, Tennessee pulled away in the second half to defeat Mississippi State 72-59. Tennessee will face the winner of Friday night’s Kentucky-Vanderbilt game in Saturday afternoon’s SEC Tournament semifinal.

Tennessee’s Josiah-Jordan James led all scorers with 16 points, making 6-of-11 field goals. Five Vols reached double-figures, with Kennedy Chandler (11 points), Brandon Huntley-Hatfield (10 points), Santiago Vescovi (10 points) and Zakai Zeigler (11 points) joining James. John Fulkerson led the UT rebounding effort with 8 boards.

Kennedy Chandler’s ankle caused him to leave the game multiple times. Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said Chandler relayed that he felt fine, so Barnes let him return. Chandler played 18-of-20 minutes in the first half. In the second half, as Tennessee opened up a double-digit lead, Chandler logged just 9 more minutes of playing time. He finished with 11 points on 4-of-7 shooting from the floor.

It was a 39-37 Volunteer lead at the half. MSU kept the score close in the first half by winning the rebound battle 18-10. Tennessee won the battle of the boards in the second half, narrowing the final difference to 33-29 at the buzzer.

Tennessee shot an even 50 percent from the floor, making 29-of-58 field-goal attempts. The Vols had the better box score in 3-point shooting (42 percent to 35 percent), turnovers (6-13), bench points (21-12) and points in the paint (32-22). Barnes’ squad led for over 37 minutes on Friday night.

Mississippi State drops to 18-15. The Bulldogs could potentially receive a bid to the NIT.

Andrew Olson

Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.