KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The Tennessee men’s basketball team did a good job of rebounding in every sense of the word.
Robert Hubbs III scored 19 points Saturday as Tennessee controlled the glass and dominated the
second half in a 91-74 victory against Mississippi State.
Grant Williams added 17 points — all in the second half — to help Tennessee (10-9, 3-4 Southeastern Conference) earn its first SEC home win of the season after losing at home to Arkansas and No. 24 South Carolina. Tennessee also bounced back from an 80-69 loss to Ole Miss on Tuesday in which it blew a 13-point lead in the last 15 minutes.
“The biggest thing is we wanted to be physical,” said Admiral Schofield, who had 15 points and seven rebounds for Tennessee. “We weren’t physical with Ole Miss, and they probably think we’re pretty soft.”
Mississippi State (12-6, 3-3) has dropped two straight after winning three in a row. This marked the first SEC road loss of the season for MSU, which had won at LSU and Arkansas.
MSU coach Ben Howland said Tennessee’s rebounding edge made the difference. Tennessee outrebounded MSU 49-35 and had 19 offensive boards.
“Losing on the boards by 14, we’re not going to beat anybody in our conference,” Howland said. “We’ve got to do a better job rebounding. That’s what we’re looking for — guys that are going to get in there and fight and rebound. We’re not doing a good enough job in that respect.”
Tennessee had that rebounding edge despite being at a height disadvantage.
“It’s just toughness, energy and effort, just trying to out-tough the other team and give more energy than the other team,” said Tennessee’s Lew Evans, who had five points and nine rebounds in 25 minutes off the bench. “That’s really what rebounding’s all about.”
Schnider Herard had 14 points and 11 rebounds for the MSU freshman’s first double-double. Quinndary Weatherspoon and Lamar Peters had 11 points each, and Mario Kegler added 10.
After trailing most of the first half, MSU scored the first four points of the second half to grab a 38-37 lead with 19 minutes, 25 seconds remaining.
But the Volunteers dominated from that point.
Tennessee pulled ahead for good on Williams’ 3-pointer with 19:08 left and was up by double digits a few minutes later.
Williams and Bowden were the key performers in the second-half surge. At halftime, Bowden had two points and Williams was scoreless. They teamed for 29 points in the second half, with Williams scoring 17 and Bowden adding 12. They shot a combined 0-for-8 in the first half and 9 of 16 in the second half.
Schofield and Williams are listed as 6-5. Schofield is 238 pounds and Williams is 234. Their play helped the Volunteers overcome the Bulldogs’ height advantage.
“When I’m on the floor — and that’s something that Grant came in with and I came in with — we don’t think that we’re 6-5 and 6-4,” Schofield said regarding the physical style that he and Williams employ. “We play like we’re 6-10, 6-11, 7 feet. We think we can compete with the best of them.”
Rather than collapsing down the stretch as they had done at Ole Miss, Tennessee built on its lead this time. It committed seven turnovers and shot 54.8 percent (17 of 31) overall and 66.7 percent (4 of 6) from 3-point range in the second half.
Meanwhile, MSU’s lack of defense and inability to connect from 3-point range and the free-throw line in the second half did it in. The Bulldogs were 2 of 11 on 3-pointers and 8 of 17 on free throws in the second half.
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