Bishop Boswell chased a loose ball toward the sideline and passed it off to Nate Ament behind his back. The two played hot potato before Ament jammed the lob.
Nightmares traveled south to Humphrey Coliseum on Wednesday as Tennessee basketball surrounded itself in the same fuel it drowned in against Kentucky, but managed to pull out a 73-64 win over Mississippi State. A once-23-point lead simmered down to single digits before hustle plays proved to be the difference-maker.
Mississippi State’s (11-13, 3-8 SEC) Josh Hubbard went for 31 points on Tennessee while the rest of the team was held to 33 points on 12-for-37 shooting.
Ament salvaged a rather calm night with two needed and-one’s late in the game. He finished with 16 points with a 6-for-6 mark from the free-throw line for Tennessee (17-7, 7-4). Boswell posted another all-around performance with four points, seven rebounds and a career-high eight assists.
Dunks in The Hump
Tennessee’s best effort on the hardwood, it could not sink a close-range shot. The solution proved simple at Mississippi State: keep the margin of error low.
The Vols hammered home x dunks against the Bulldogs on Wednesday. Rather than layups, a 3-for-7 struggle against Kentucky, Tennessee took the ball straight to the rack early and often.
Felix Okpara and J.P. Estrella exchanged slams on four consecutive possessions to open the game — including an Estrella poster where his hand never touched the rim. Ament’s first bucket of the night came with 11 minutes to go in the first half. He drove strongly to the rack, slamming home the deuce for a 23-16 lead.
Six of Tennessee’s first 11 baskets were dunks.
Uncontainable Hubbard
Mississippi State’s lifeline came at the hands of its 20.6-point-per-game scorer.
He scored 17 of the Bulldogs’ first 20 points, striping the bottom of the net 7-of-9 times. Mississippi State’s first-half struggles came when its leading scorer needed a breather.
Hubbard took a spot on the bench twice in the first half. Tennessee went on a 7-0 run in the 1:39 he rested. The next break he took lasted 1:12, and the Vols took advantage with a 4-0 run — part of a span where the Bulldogs went 6:51 without a point. Hubbard’s next bucket to give him 19 points broke the scoreless streak.
He took 20 points in the halftime break as Tennessee led 39-28.
Hubbard continued to provide the lone source of offense for a struggling Bulldogs squad in the second half. He posted another 13 points in the second half, finishing the game 13-for-24 from the field.
A 25-5 run sparks Tennessee
Achor Achor drilled a 3-point shot to knot the score at 25-all. That was the last light of day the Bulldogs saw on Wednesday.
Achor’s make with 7:59 to go in the half was the last until Hubbard put through a mid-range jumper with 1:08 — breaking a scoring drought in which Mississippi State shot 0-for-9 from the field.
From the 7:59 mark of the first half until the 17:12 mark of the second half, the Vols’ lead swelled to 20 points.
Mississippi State answers
Blown leads have been the name of the game for the Vols. They can’t quite seem to put away opponents.
A 23-point lead Tennessee possessed with 10 minutes to go quickly dissipated. The Bulldogs rallied for an 18-0 run brought the score to single digits for the first time in the second half.
Tennessee went on a four-plus-minute scoring drought, missing nine consecutive shots. Ament put down the first basket on an and-one layup with 4:59 to go to kill the scoreless run. He pushed the Vols’ lead back to eight points, and that was enough to hang on by a thread the rest of the way.
Tennessee basketball returns to Food City Center on Saturday, Feb. 14, for a meeting with LSU.
