Tennessee Basketball’s offense can’t keep up in loss to Mississippi State
Tennessee basketball’s offense is unable to keep up with Mississippi State in the second half leading to its third straight loss.
Tennessee basketball continues to struggle to find the win column with its ninth loss of the season and third straight loss after an 86-73 loss to Mississippi State.
The Tennessee offense showed up pretty well in Saturday’s matchup, but Mississippi State’s second-half offense was too powerful for the Vols.
After trailing by six points at halftime, the Bulldogs scored 58 points in the second half to win the game by 13. The Vols’ 39 second-half points weren’t nearly enough to get the win.
But with that being said, the offense still had a pretty good showing on the road. Uros Plavsic and Santiago Vescovi led the Tennessee offense with 16 points each, Jordan Bowden finished with 12 points, and Jalen Johnson scored 13 off the bench.
The Bulldogs dominated down low and led its charge in the paint and at the free-throw line, which exposed a big weakness in Tennessee’s defense.
There are some good things and bad things you can take from this game. One very good thing is Plavsic having his first breakout game in a Tennessee uniform.
The offense seems to be improving, which is what I asked for throughout December and January, but the second-half defense is a big negative takeaway from this game.
If the Vols give up over 50 points in any half, it’s going to be hard to win unless their offense is on fire too.
Another positive is to see some life from Tennessee’s bench. Bench production was mostly Johnson, but to have someone finish with double-digit points is a big improvement from where the Vols were sitting about a month ago.
Tennessee did miss some offensive production with Josiah-Jordan James not playing in Saturday’s game. James is a pretty good player on both ends of the court, so missing him in a game like this hurt the Vols on offense and defense.
The Vols also struggle, for the third game in a row, with free throws. Not necessarily their free-throw shooting, but their opponent’s free-throw shooting. Mississippi State shot 25-30 from the charity stripe.
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Tennessee has Alabama up next, which won’t be an easy game by any means. Alabama is also capable of putting 80 on the scoreboard, so the Vols’ defense will need to show up if Tennessee wants to win.