The lone meeting this season between No. 15 Mississippi State and No. 6 Tennessee will be of national significance Tuesday night in Knoxville, Tenn.
Mississippi State (15-3, 3-2 SEC) met in-state foe Ole Miss on Saturday in another duel of ranked teams and held on to defeat the No. 21 Rebels 84-81 in overtime in a fierce battle befitting of rivals.
Mississippi State led by 14 in the first half but had to turn to Riley Kugel for two free throws with 11 seconds left in overtime before the Rebels’ Jaemyn Brakefield missed a 3-point attempt at the buzzer.
Mississippi State head coach Chris Jans improved to 4-1 against Ole Miss and picked up his 200th career victory on Saturday while improving to 57-30 with the Bulldogs.
Kugel, a Florida transfer, is scoring a career-high 10.2 points per game. He missed Tuesday’s 88-66 blowout loss at No. 1 Auburn with finger and ankle injuries but responded with a season-high 21 points versus Ole Miss.
Kugel credits Jans for creating a tenacious work ethic around the Bulldogs’ program.
“Man, he’s going to give it his all,” Kugel said, “so he expects us to give it our all every day — practice, games, off days. That’s just who he is and makes us who we (are). He just makes us overall a great team.”
Josh Hubbard paces Mississippi State with 16.6 points per game, while Claudell Harris Jr. is at 10.8 points and KeShawn Murphy is scoring 10.3.
Murphy (7.7 rebounds) anchors a group that dominated Ole Miss 51-29 on the glass and ranks fifth in the SEC with 39.7 rebounds per game.
After losing for the second time in three conference road games, the Volunteers (16-2, 3-2) must regroup after falling to in-state rival Vanderbilt 76-75 on Saturday in Nashville and seeing the sellout crowd storm the court.
One of four unbeaten SEC teams at home, Tennessee has crafted a 10-for-10 showing on its home court, joining Missouri’s 14, Mississippi’s nine and Auburn’s eight home victories.
“I thought they played hard,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said of Vanderbilt. “I thought they played with a real sense of purpose and got a lot in the lane on us. Which, again, you give them credit because they had to carve out and fight for that space and they got it.
“Too many second-chance points that we gave up, but again, you got to give them credit for that.”
Tennessee is eighth in SEC rebounding at 38.6, setting up a key matchup inside Tuesday.
Chaz Lanier, who missed a game-tying free throw with 2.8 seconds left at Vanderbilt, tops Tennessee with 18.1 points, while Zakai Zeigler totals 12.3 points and 7.7 assists. Jordan Gainey scores 11.3 points and Igor Milicic Jr. adds 10.7 points and 8.4 rebounds.
Mississippi State has won the past two against the Tennessee after a five-game losing streak in the matchup.
In the previous meeting in March of last season, Mississippi State routed top-seed Tennessee 73-56 in the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament at Nashville.
