NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The fifth-ranked Tennessee Volunteers don't have time to fix the issues that are costing them games before the NCAA tournament.
The Mississippi State Bulldogs have likely made their way into that field with their latest big win.
Cameron Matthews and Josh Hubbard each scored 18 points, and the ninth-seeded Bulldogs dominated Tennessee 73-56 on Friday in the SEC tournament quarterfinals.
This win should take the Bulldogs (21-12) firmly off the bubble with their second win over the SEC regular-season champions this season. They will face No. 12 Auburn, which beat 15th-ranked South Carolina, 86-55, in Saturday's semifinals, their first semifinal since winning this event in 2009.
Mississippi State, which ended the regular season on a four-game skid, never trailed and the Vols earned a 2-2 tie. The Bulldogs held Dalton Knecht, the AP SEC Player of the Year who averaged 25.5 points in the league, to 14 points.
“We just dictated,” Bulldogs forward DJ Jeffries said.
Mississippi State coach Chris Jans said he knew his team had to be super aggressive.
“I really felt like our only chance was to punch them in the mouth,” the second-year coach said. “We had to come out and attack them, just put our toughness into the game and see if we could shake them up a little bit.”
Tennessee (24-8) damaged its hopes of earning the first No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament in program history with a second straight loss.
“We're not happy with a lot of things that happened today, things that shouldn't have happened,” coach Rick Barnes said of his Vols. “There's nothing that happened that we can't fix.”
Tennessee came in looking to add a tournament title to its regular season title, but instead comes out as an underdog in the quarterfinals for the second year in a row after winning this tournament in 2022.
Zakai Zeigler scored a game-high 20 points and Jahmai Mashack added 10 for Tennessee.
The Volunteers had a lot of orange in support and fans desperate to give them energy. However, they struggled to shoot no matter how open they looked at the basket. Mississippi State, which beat LSU in its tournament opener, seemingly could not fail.
“It just felt good to silence all that noise, have our fans supporting us,” Matthews said.
The Bulldogs shot 62.5% from the floor and led 38-19 at halftime with Shawn Jones Jr. finishing the dominant start with a dunk to ring the buzzer after a rare mistake by a teammate. They held Tennessee to a season-low in first-half points, three fewer than the last time these teams met.
Mississippi State led by as many as 23 midway through the second half. When the Vols got within 60-48 with 10 straight points, Jeffries hit a 3-pointer and then a layup to snuff out Tennessee's hopes of a comeback.
BIG PICTURE
Mississippi State: The Bulldogs are one of 16 teams with at least two wins over top-10 teams during league play, and this was another after beating Tennessee in January. They outscored the Vols 42-14 in the paint.
Tennessee: Knecht pulled the Vols out of some poor first-half performances during the regular season with big runs all by himself. This time, he was 2-for-9 in the second half. The Vols are now 10-4 against the Bulldogs under Barnes.
UNTIL NEXT TIME
Mississippi State was swept by South Carolina, including in the regular season finale 93-89 in overtime. The Bulldogs split with Auburn and each team won on their own home court.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
