STARKVILLE — The ball sat on the rim seemingly forever, hanging in the balance just like Wednesday night’s game.
Tolu Smith knew he’d be going to the free throw line one way or the other. He received the pass from Cameron Matthews near the right block, and with his Tennessee counterpart, Jonas Aidoo, having fouled out, Smith instead was matched up with Tobe Awaka — who was playing with four fouls himself. He backed the ball out as he approached the rim, then drew contact from Awaka as he put up the shot, which got the friendly roll and dropped through the net.
Mississippi State’s centerpiece, in just his third game this season after returning from a foot injury, had delivered a signature moment for the Bulldogs with 14.7 seconds left. When MSU came up with one more defensive stop, head coach Chris Jans had his biggest win to date as the Bulldogs knocked off the No. 5 Volunteers, 77-72, for their first top-5 win in 21 years.
“There was a brief moment where I thought about calling a timeout,” Jans said. “There was enough time that we could have called timeout and reset the situation and made sure we had the pieces on the board in the right spot. But it worked out this time.”
Coming back home after a frustrating loss at South Carolina to open Southeastern Conference play, MSU (12-3, 1-1 SEC) stared down a daunting three-game stretch, with games against Alabama and Kentucky still on the horizon. But from the opening tip, the Bulldogs were the more energetic side, forcing 10 turnovers and holding Tennessee (11-4, 1-1) to 2-for-13 from 3-point range in the first half.
MSU led by just two at the under-8 television timeout, then used a 17-4 run to create some separation. Freshman Josh Hubbard connected three times from behind the arc during the spurt, and Smith showed off his versatility in the post in his first start of the year. Already armed with a variety of moves around the basket, Smith has shown improvement as a ball handler and free throw shooter, drawing nine fouls and finishing 9-for-12 from the line.
“It’s unbelievable to see it actually on the court and be (Smith’s) teammate,” Hubbard said. “I grew up in Mississippi, so I used to watch him on TV for a long time. So to come to this program and to see him succeed and work hard and see the behind-the-scenes, it’s a blessing.”
The Volunteers’ defensive specialist, Zakai Zeigler, was their main source of offense in the first half, largely because D.J. Jeffries had Tennessee leading scorer Dalton Knecht locked down. Jeffries finished with five steals, four of them in the first half, and Knecht was sitting on just two points through the first 20 minutes.
But Knecht heated up in a big way after halftime, finishing with a game-high 28 points on 10-for-18 shooting. He fueled a Volunteers run with a pair of 3-pointers 30 seconds apart, ultimately tying the game on a pair of free throws with five minutes and change remaining.
“He’s a great offensive player,” Jeffries said. “He got hot there in the second half. I just had to go in, step up and take the challenge. It doesn’t matter who I have to guard; I’m going to step up and take the challenge each and every night.”
Tennessee flummoxed the Bulldogs with full-court press, forcing 13 turnovers in the second half, and MSU struggled to find offense from anyone other than Hubbard or Smith — who finished with 25 and 23 points, respectively.
An old-fashioned 3-point play by Hubbard, followed by a Matthews layup, gave the hosts a six-point lead with less than two minutes on the clock, but Zeigler and Knecht kept turning defense into offense for the Volunteers, who tied the game again at 72 with 34 seconds left.
“We knew it was going to be a physical game,” Jans said. “Everything we did, from getting open to passing and catching to setting screens on the ball (and) off the ball to how we’re defending them, just being real physical. If you didn’t have that mindset, it was going to be hard for you to play in this particular game.”
In the end, when the Bulldogs needed a bucket, they turned to Smith, who has come through for them time and time again over his three-plus years in Starkville. Dashawn Davis then stripped the ball from Knecht on Tennessee’s final possession, and Matthews punctuated the victory with a two-handed dunk as time expired.
“It was a great win for us,” Smith said. “It’s going to be a momentum-shifter for our team. Going into March, wins like that, everybody knows we need all those kinds of wins we can get. We got the job done.”
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