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Starkville, MS — Tennessee’s road success continued Wednesday night as the Vols’ used a strong, balanced performance to beat Mississippi State, 72-63.
Here’s three quick takeaways.
Game Of First Half Runs
Mississippi State opened the scoring at Humphrey Coliseum on the first possession when D.J. Jeffries finished a layup at the basket. It took Mississippi State nearly four minutes to score again as Tennessee’s offense exploded to take a 14-2 lead.
The Vols’ offense was simply fantastic out the gates, making seven of their first eight attempts from the field including their first two three-point attempts.
Making his first career start, Brandon Huntley-Hatfield scored Tennessee’s first four points as everyone got involved in the Vols’ strong start. In fact, all five of Tennessee’s starters scored before the first media timeout.
Combine the red-hot shooting start with its normal stingy defense and Tennessee had the best start imaginable.
As things have gone for Tennessee most the season, the offense entered a major dry spell and Mississippi State capitalized.
The Bulldogs used an extended 18-4 run to take a 29-27 lead with just under five minutes left in the half.
After scoring 14 points in the first 3:46 of the half, it took Tennessee 12:11 to score its next 14 points.
Mississippi State’s defense led the charge, but the Bulldogs’ did an exceptional job of getting to the free throw line and taking advantage of Tennessee’s weakened front court without Olivier Nkamhoua.
The Vols steadied the ship towards the end of the half thanks to a Kennedy Chandler outburst, taking a two-point lead into the locker room. Still, Tennessee missed an opportunity after starting incredibly fast.
Tennessee Turn To Freshmen Big Men
As previously mentioned, Brandon Huntley-Hatfield made his first start of his career, but he wasn’t the only freshman big man that saw extended minutes thanks to Olivier Nkamhoua’s injury.
Center Jonas Aidoo — who had only played in mop up duty all season — played 12 big-time minutes to go along with Huntley-Hatfield’s 15 minutes.
So, how did the duo perform?
Some good and some bad which you have to live with on the road against a strong front line. Mississippi State’s game plan was to go at Tennessee over-and-over again inside, and it was effective in many ways.
Mississippi State shot 23 free throws as Tennessee’s front line — particularly Aidoo — weren’t strong enough to shut the Bulldogs’ down.
Huntley-Hatfield totaled just four points after scoring the first two possessions and failed to get in a rhythm on either end of the court. Aidoo was far from spectacular, but held his own against the unrelenting Bulldog attack.
We saw significantly less of Tennessee’s small ball lineup in Starkville. We’ll see what Barnes says postgame, but Mississippi State’s strong front line seems to make UT timid to go to the look.
Chandler And James Carry The Offensive Load
While Tennessee’s offense wasn’t as strong as it was in its previous two wins, the Vols tallied a strong 72 points despite not making an absurd number of threes.
In the first half it was point guard Kennedy Chandler leading the way. The Vols’ offense was balanced for much of the half before Chandler scored four late points to give Tennessee the lead and him nine first half points.
In one of his best games of the season, Chandler kept the pressure on Mississippi State all game, scoring 18 points on eight-of-13 shooting from the floor.
Despite the strong game, it wasn’t one without a major scare. Defending a Mississippi State layup late, Chandler went down holding his leg and was down for an extended amount of time.
Tennessee’s angst was relieved quickly with Chandler checking back in the game shortly after.
James did not have a big first half, scoring just five points. The junior forward came alive in the second half, scoring 13 points on five-of-seven shooting from the field.
The left handed wing ended with 18 points — just two points shy of his career high — and has now scored 14 points or more in three straight games.
