STARKVILLE — The Mississippi State’s men’s basketball team’s Southeastern Conference opener against Tennessee on Wednesday night was a chance for a fresh start.
Two dreadful starts turned that opportunity into a nightmare.
Tennessee outscored MSU 12-0 in the first four minutes of the first half and used a 14-4 run to open the second to earn a 61-47 win at Humphrey Coliseum.
Kevin Punter had a game-high 15 points to help Tennessee (9-4, 1-0 SEC) win its first game in a row.
“You can’t win a ballgame when you spot the other team 12 points,” said MSU coach Rick Ray, whose team fell to 7-7 and 0-1. “I thought our guys did a good job battling back, but, ultimately, this game boiled down to our inability to hit free throws. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a game where a team shoots 44 times from the free-throw line, holds the other team to 35 percent shooting, and still loses.”
MSU was 7 of 25 from the field to begin the game. That shooting effort extended to the free-throw line, where MSU was 24 of 44. MSU finished 11 of 36 from the field (30.6 percent) and 1 of 9 from 3-point range.
The free-throw shooting was the subject of Ray’s ire after the game.
“We just couldn’t find our shot from the free-throw line,” said MSU junior Gavin Ware, who led MSU with 12 points and nine rebounds. “I think we were rushing into our free throws.
The 47 points tied a season-low for the Bulldogs, which starts SEC play 0-1 for the second time in three years under Ray. MSU also scored 47 last week in a 19-point loss to McNeese State.
“It was typical conference basketball,” Tennessee coach Donnie Tyndall said. “We were fortunate Mississippi State missed a significant number of free throws. That game was really closer than the score indicates.”
Tennessee won despite going scoreless for more than 12 minutes in the first half. After starting the game on a 12-0 run, Tennessee watched as MSU scored 14 points in the next 12 minutes to take a brief lead. But the Volunteers scored four points in the final minute of the first half to take a 26-23 halftime lead and never looked back.
The game remained sluggish in the second half until a key six-second stretch helped Tennessee turn a six-point lead into a 12-point advantage. Tennessee guard Detrick Mostella drilled a 3-pointer, stole the inbounds pass, and hit another from 3-pointer to cap a stretch that ultimately put the game away.
“(Mostella) is good at that, giving us quick bursts of offense off the bench,” Tyndall said. “That’s what he does.”
The loss was MSU’s seventh in its past nine games. Like the first seven, MSU struggled in all phases on offense. In the losses, the Bulldogs have scored 51 points per game and haven’t broken the 60-point barrier.
“We are just not executing our offensive plays,” Ware said. “We have to execute better, get good looks and not turn the ball over.”
In the slow start, MSU committed seven turnovers in four minutes. The Bulldogs finished with 13 giveaways.
Ware played 25 minutes despite leading the team in scoring and rebounding, as Ray chose to start the same five in each half, a starting unit that was outscored 26-4 in the first five minutes of both halves.
MSU’s starting five combined for 16 points, including nine from junior Craig Sword.
Of opting to start the second half with the same unit that performed so poorly in the first half, Ray said, “I thought that group gave us the best chance of getting off to a fast start.”
Sword, who was 7 of 8 from the free-throw line, couldn’t explain MSU’s offensive woes.
“We got off to a bad start and couldn’t score,” Sword said. “We need to shoot it better.”
The Volunteers and Bulldogs entered the game 13th and 14th in the SEC in scoring. But Tennessee made up for its offensive shortcomings by making 10 of 20 3-pointers and by outrebounding a bigger MSU team 44-28.
“It’s never going to be pretty offensively. We are what we are,” Tyndall said. “We did a good job defending, held them to 30 percent shooting, and outrebounded them, which was big.”
Ware was MSU’s only player to reach double digits. In addition to Sword’s nine, point guard Trivante Bloodman added eight and guard Travis Daniels had seven. MSU’s two leading scorers — guard Fred Thomas and senior forward Roquez Johnson — combined for seven points. Thomas was 1 of 10 from the field.
Ware, who scored his 12 on 4-of-5 shooting, didn’t play in the final eight minutes.
“He was hurting us on ball-screen defense,” Ray said of Ware’s limited playing time.
Asked about being benched for much of the second half, Ware said, “The coaches felt that players that needed to be in the game were in the game. I have no problem with that.”
Guard Josh Richardson added 11 points and forward Devon Baulkman had 10 for Tennessee.
Despite the loss, Ware remained positive after the game.
“We know who we are. We know what we can do,” Ware said. “We just have to pull it out and give better effort.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Brandon Walker on Twitter @BWonStateBeat
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