STARKVILLE, Miss. (AP) — Ja’Kobi Gillespie scored 18 points, and Tennessee used a second-half rally to beat Mississippi State 73-64 on Wednesday.
Tennessee (17-7, 7-4 SEC) led 39-28 at halftime, overcoming a fast start from Josh Hubbard, who scored 14 of Mississippi State’s first 16 points and finished with 20 in the opening half. Hubbard also tied the program record for career 3-pointers during the game. Gillespie opened the second half with seven straight points as the Volunteers extended the margin to 46-30.
Mississippi State (11-13, 3-8) used an 18-0 run early in the second half to close the gap, but Tennessee answered immediately. Gillespie hit a 3-pointer, Nate Ament scored inside and J.P. Estrella added two free throws to stretch the margin once again. The Bulldogs never got closer than seven the rest of the way.
Ament scored 16 points on 5 of 12 shooting and added five assists for Tennessee. Estrella finished with 12 points and seven rebounds. Gillespie also recorded four assists and five rebounds. The Volunteers shot 44% and held a 45-31 rebounding advantage.
Hubbard scored 31 points for Mississippi State, going 13 of 24 from the field and 4 of 9 from 3-point distance. The Bulldogs shot 41% and went 7 of 13 at the line.
Recommended for you
Up next
Tennessee hosts LSU on Saturday.
Mississippi State travels to Ole Miss on Saturday.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO
personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who
make comments. Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd,
racist or sexually-oriented language. Don't threaten. Threats of harming another
person will not be tolerated. Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone
or anything. Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on
each comment to let us know of abusive posts. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. Anyone violating these rules will be issued a
warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be
revoked.
Please purchase a Premium Subscription to continue reading.
To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account.
We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription.
A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means you’re helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much!
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.