STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Tennessee jumped to a 17-0 lead and held on for a 75-59 SEC victory here Saturday over Mississippi State.
The Vols ended the regular season on a three-game winning streak with wins against Kentucky, Arkansas and Mississippi State.
Mississippi State Head Coach Rick Stansbury
Opening Comments…
“They came in here and hit us in the mouth early. We didn’t get up and respond very well. We got down by 17 in five minutes.
"It happened so quickly. We couldn’t stop it. I called two timeouts, and we had the 16 minute media timeout. We
couldn’t stop them. I never felt like we had any emotion. I understand that once they hit you in the mouth you lose emotion, but we never had it. I don’t have any answer to it. This team hasn’t done this before. You would think with senior night we would have some emotion. They killed us in the paint and on the board then made the shots they had.
"We got it going on early in the second half, but they made a run and stopped us.”
On the team’s standing after tonight…
“Well, we have to find a silver lining. I know these two seniors are hurt, but there will be a day when they wake up and realize they’re still champs. I’m sure nobody would have given us a chance to win playing without Elgin (Bailey), (Renardo)
Sidney, Twanny (Beckham) and Shaun (Smith).
"No one can take that from us. It’s a bitter sweet pill for us. What’s left for us? Last year we had to win four games in four days. This year we have to win three games in three days. There are still opportunities for us out there.”
On being outrebounded and the play of Wayne Chism …
“He killed us. Their best player on the inside scores one point, so we did a good job on him. It’s just everybody else. They beat us in every facet. There’s no area that I can say we had a chance at winning.”
On the early deficit…
“It’s pretty hard to keep them from shooting threes. Just telling it to them didn’t work. It’s very obvious what happened to us. It happened so quickly. 17-0. We were totally out of sync. We didn’t take good shots, took plenty of poor shots. Just absolutely the worst fi ve minute stretch we could have. Took the crowd totally out of it, and took our emotion away.”
Tennessee Head Coach Bruce Pearl
Opening comments…
“We obviously took that one very seriously. There wasn’t any over looking a team like Mississippi State. If you’re going to win on the road you have to play well early and obviously we did and took a great crowd out of the game.
"I think our depth was a factor in a sense that they didn’t have the depth to expend the kind of energy you need to mount a significant second half rally. I really like coach Stansburry and his staff and I knew this was an important game for them and I take no
pleasure in denying them the opportunity to get this quality win. We wanted to win. We wanted this eleventh conference win.
"We wanted to solidify our position. We wanted to make a statement about our seeding. This game can help us move up a seed, to come down here and win.”
On last year’s SEC tournament win having any factor…
“I’m sure the players talked about it. I talked about it a little bit, but not a lot. It’s a card you play, but do you want to trade this win for that championship? I’ll trade that championship for this win. This one doesn’t get it square. On a personal note, I was happy Mississippi State got into the tournament last year.”
On having any concern of Wayne Chism’s play…
“I’m not concerned about Wayne, because he’s been through so much. I think it’s really a blessing when you can win, and a guy who has been carrying you doesn’t have a good night.”
On the emotional senior night…
“I think that there is a part of Wayne that is stressing over that it’s going to be over soon. He is a leader on campus, he’s a leader on the team, he’s a fraternity brother, and he’s got a tremendous spirit.
"Even for Jarvis and Barry, this was an emotional night for them. They give their all for Mississippi State and the time that they’ve spent in that gym.
Official Basketball Box Score
Tennessee vs Mississippi State
03-06-10 5:00 p.m. at Starkville, Miss. (Humphrey Coliseum)
VISITORS: Tennessee (23-7, 11-5 SEC)
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
04 Wayne Chism......... f 0-4 0-1 1-2 3 3 6 3 1 1 2 1 1 25
33 Williams, Brian..... c 5-7 0-0 0-0 3 10 13 3 10 0 1 1 1 27
03 Bobby Maze.......... g 3-7 0-3 4-4 0 1 1 1 10 3 2 0 1 26
30 Prince, J.P......... g 6-10 1-3 3-4 2 4 6 4 16 3 4 0 2 29
32 Hopson, Scotty...... g 6-14 2-5 0-0 1 2 3 1 14 1 0 0 2 31
00 Renaldo Woolridge... 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 2 0 1 0 0 2
20 Hall, Kenny......... 3-4 0-0 0-0 1 3 4 1 6 0 1 1 1 12
21 Goins, Melvin....... 1-5 0-1 2-4 0 3 3 1 4 2 0 0 1 15
22 Pearl, Steven....... 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 2 2 2 2 2 2 0 0 14
23 Tatum, Cameron...... 4-7 0-3 2-2 0 3 3 3 10 0 2 0 1 19
TEAM................ 3 2 5
Totals.............. 30-60 3-16 12-16 13 33 46 19 75 12 15 3 10 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 17-34 50.0% 2nd Half: 13-26 50.0% Game: 50.0% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 1-9 11.1% 2nd Half: 2-7 28.6% Game: 18.8% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 3-6 50.0% 2nd Half: 9-10 90.0% Game: 75.0% 1
HOME TEAM: Mississippi State (21-10, 9-7 SEC)
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
24 Kodi Augustus....... f 4-10 3-5 4-4 2 3 5 3 15 0 1 3 1 20
32 Jarvis Varnado...... f 4-7 0-0 3-8 2 4 6 1 11 2 3 2 1 37
02 Ravern Johnson...... g 2-11 1-5 0-0 3 3 6 0 5 1 1 0 0 33
03 Dee Bost............ g 4-11 2-8 1-1 2 3 5 4 11 6 3 0 1 35
22 Barry Stewart....... g 2-11 1-8 1-2 0 4 4 2 6 3 2 0 0 39
05 Romero Osby......... 1-2 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 1 0 7
15 Riley Benock........ 0-1 0-1 1-2 0 1 1 3 1 1 1 0 0 5
20 Taylor Luczak....... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
25 Phil Turner......... 3-6 2-5 0-0 1 2 3 1 8 0 1 0 1 23
TEAM................ 1
Totals.............. 20-59 9-32 10-17 10 20 30 14 59 13 13 6 4 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 6-25 24.0% 2nd Half: 14-34 41.2% Game: 33.9% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 3-12 25.0% 2nd Half: 6-20 30.0% Game: 28.1% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 6-11 54.5% 2nd Half: 4-6 66.7% Game: 58.8% 3
Officials: Ted Valentine, Tom Eades, Doug Sirmons.
Technical fouls: Tennessee-None. Mississippi State-None.
Attendance: 10021
Score by Periods 1st 2nd Total
Tennessee..................... 38 37 - 75
Mississippi State............. 21 38 - 59
Points in the paint-UT 48,MS 20. Points off turnovers-UT 21,MS 12.
2nd chance points-UT 12,MS 11. Fast break points-UT 6,MS 0.
Bench points-UT 24,MS 11. Score tied-0 times. Lead changed-0 times.
Last FG-UT 2nd-00:59, MS 2nd-00:49.
Largest lead-UT by 17 1st-14:25, MS None.
(E-mail Stan Crawley at wscrawley@earthlink.net)