After 15-point rally, No. 5 Tennessee falls in final minute at Mississippi State, 77-72

STARKVILLE — Life is hard enough on the road in college basketball. Life is even harder when trying to dig out of a 15-point hole away from home.

No. 5 Tennessee trailed Mississippi State by 15 late in the first half Wednesday night at Humphrey Coliseum, rallied to tie the game in the second half, but couldn’t get the stop it needed in the final minute.

Tolu Smith scored with 14.7 seconds left to lead Mississippi State to a 77-72 upset on its home floor. Dalton Knecht dunked to tie the game with 34 seconds to go, before Smith scored and got fouled on the other end.

Knecht, who scored 26 of his 28 points in the second half, tied the game with a free throw with 4:38 left, but Tennessee (11-4, 1-1 SEC) went scoreless for nearly three minutes as Mississippi State went on a 6-0 run.

Zakai Zeigler scored a career-high 26 points for the Vols and center Jonas Aidoo had nine points and five rebounds before fouling out with 4:55 left. Josiah-Jordan James scored three points on 1-for-8 shooting and Santiago Vescovi had just two points while going 1-for-4 and battling foul trouble.

Mississippi State (12-3, 1-1) got 25 points from Josh Hubbard, who went 5-for-10 from the 3-point line, and Smith scored 23.

Tennessee used a 7-0 run to erase as seven-point deficit, tying the game at 62-all after a pair of Knecht free throws with 5:17 left.

The Vols finally got back in the game early in the second half, using a 9-0 run that needed just 38 seconds. Knecht hit two straight 3-pointers and Zeigler hitting a third. Just like that, what was as much as a 15-point lead late in the first half was down to one possession with 13:52 to go.

Vescovi missed a three that would’ve tied the game at the 12:59 mark.

Knecht hit his third 3-pointer of the half with 11:36 left, to get the deficit to down to two, hit a jumper at the 10:04 mark to make it a three-point game and had his second high-flying dunk of the half with 8:44 to go, again cutting the State lead down to three.

Still, the Vols could do no more than tie the game despite the comeback.

Vols had more turnovers (10) in first half than made shots (9)

Mississippi State needed just 1:24 to go on an 8-0 run late in the first half to build its lead to 10, while Tennessee was in a stretch of making just one of its last nine shots from the floor. 

The lead would grow to 15 in the final minute of the half, after another 7-0 State run put more even distance between the two teams. 

Tennessee in the first half had more turnovers (10) than made shots (9), shooting 233% from the field, going just 2-for-13 from the 3-point line. 

The Vols entered averaging 10 turnovers per game, but Mississippi State had seven steals, two blocks and one forced shot-clock violation in the first half, turning the 10 turnovers forced into 12 points. 

Zeigler made four of Tennessee’s nine shots in the first half, scoring 10 points in 17 minutes. Aidoo had five points, the only other player with more than two. Vescovi played just five minutes in the first half before picking up two fouls.

Mississippi State shot 50% from the field in the first half and went 4-for-9 at the 3-point line. Smith and Hubbard had 12 each in the first 20 minutes, with Hubbard going 3-for-6 from the 3-point line and Smith going 5-for-7 from the field. 

Up Next: No. 5 Tennessee at Georgia, Saturday, Noon ET, ESPN2

After opening the SEC road schedule at Mississippi State, the Vols will be back on the road at Georgia on Saturday in a Noon ET start on ESPN2 at Stegeman Coliseum in Athens.

Tennessee next week starts a stretch of three of four games at home, starting with Florida on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET, ESPN). Alabama at home is next on Saturday, January 20 (Noon or 2 p.m. ET on ESPN or ESPN 2), then the Vols go to Vanderbilt on January 27 (6 p.m. ET, SEC Network) and are back home against South Carolina on January 30 (6:30 p.m. ET, SEC Network) to round out the January schedule.

Tennessee stayed at No. 5 in the Associated Press Top 25 on Monday, the team’s highest ranking of the season so far. The Vols entered Saturday ranked No. 6 in the NET and No. 5 in the KenPom.com ratings.