The Closing Five: Tennessee beats Mississippi on the road
If Vols fans began to panic down the stretch in Starkville, I wouldn’t blame them. However, Tennessee Basketball was able to leave Mississippi State with the win they came for, beating the Bulldogs 73-64. While it wasn’t pretty throughout the entire 40 minutes, Tennessee showed improvements over what cost them in games past, while also giving fans reason to melt down. That being said, here are the closing five takeaways from Tuesday night’s game.
1: Nate Ament Stepped Up Again
The Vols were up 23 with 10 minutes to go, and it seemed like everything was in hand. However, Mississippi State got hotter than hot and went on an 18-0 run that turned what seemed like a blowout into another potential collapse like last weekend's game against Kentucky.
The up stepped Nate Ament. With five minutes left and having just seen the lead vanish, the freshman forward took over the game and scored eight points in the final five minutes after the Bulldogs made it a game again. He sealed the game with an alley-oop dunk after a terrific play from sophomore guard Bishop Boswell, which ended the hopes of any State comeback.
a thing of beauty pic.twitter.com/rBWkQA2h9u
— Tennessee Basketball (@Vol_Hoops) February 12, 2026
While Ament played well when the team needed him most, it was a quieter night for him than fans have been used to seeing over the past couple of weeks. He finished with 16 points on 5-12 shooting with 3 rebounds, 6 assists, and was 6-6 at the free throw line, but only had 6 in the first half.
“Coming down the stretch, he was banged up a little bit,” head coach Rick Barnes said. “I could tell he wasn’t moving the way he normally moves, but at the end, when we needed him, he came through.”
It wasn’t the 20-plus point dominant performance he’s been accustomed to in conference play, but he got the job done when things seemed dire.
2: A Front Court Resurgence
After an abysmal showing over the weekend from the front-court players around the rim offensively, they flipped the script against the Bulldogs. The big fellas were catching lobs, finishing over defenders, and dominating on the offensive glass.
The combination of J.P. Estrella, Jaylen Carey, Felix Okpara, and DeWayne Brown II combined for 26 points on 10-16 shooting and 27 rebounds. The Vols also grabbed 13 offensive boards and finished with 42 points in the paint compared to 24 by Mississippi State.
While it was definitely an improvement, Barnes knows it can still be better.
“I think really they should get the ball a little bit more,” Barnes said. “I do think that, but they’re going to have to, when they get it, they’ve got to play quicker with it. It just collapses too easily, and they just have to play quicker.”
3: Josh Hubbard Went Nuclear Early, Cooled Late
Mississippi State hung around in the first half almost solely due to the herculean effort from junior guard Josh Hubbard. He was a one-man show early, scoring 20 of the Bulldogs 28 points on a hot 8-13 shooting in the first period.
Hubbard cooled off in the second half, but still finished with 31 points. He had four points during State’s run in the period.
“No (defensive letdowns),” Barnes said when asked about guarding Hubbard. “If he’s going to get in, he’s going to have to shoot a lot of shots. Bishop really worked hard to try to take him out. It’s hard to guard a guy who is doing a lot, trying to get it. He chases it well, all those types of things.”
4: Gillespie succeeded without the three
Senior guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie continued to be the straw that stirs the drink for Tennessee, but without his shot from distance falling. He went 2-8 in the game from three-point distance, but still finished with 18 points.
Gillespie has been the volume shooter on this team all year, but tonight it looked like he was finding angles and lanes inside the arc that he hadn’t been using before. He opened the second half very involved in a 9-2 run.
“When he missed some shots, he stayed with it, but he had made a couple in a row, and I said, ‘Hey, you’re doing great, but, man, you gotta work this game.’” Barnes said. “Because he came down and had a little bit of a heat check, and that wasn’t the time to do it.”
While he still goes through cold spells and gets stuck in certain spots, when he’s on, this team is at its best in all categories.
5: Tennessee still hasn’t played a good full 40 minutes
Giving up a big second-half run is something this team continues to struggle with. Barnes is still trying to tighten the screws on this team, but his guys still haven’t played a clean 40-minute game against quality opponents.
“We got a team that plays hard,” Barnes said. “They wanna do the right thing, but our passing’s not crisp like it is. We throw some horrendous passes. We’ve got to get better with that, and we harp on it all the time, but those are the areas that we can definitely get better in.”
The Vols finished with double-digit turnovers (11) in their 19th game this year. The sloppiness with the ball has been the team’s kryptonite all year, and it continues to be a problem with just 4 and a half weeks till Selection Sunday. It’s been second-half runs that have doomed them in their losses to teams like Kentucky and Kansas.
“We've got to figure that out,” Gillespie said. “In the second half, we were just a little too passive and not being aggressive like we should when we get up.”
Up next, Tennessee will host ailing LSU (14-10, 2-9) in Thompson-Bowling Arena on Saturday night.