No. 1 Kentucky Is Too Much For The MSU Basketball Team

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STARKVILLE, Miss. (MSU Athletics) – Mississippi State battled undefeated Kentucky in a hard-fought SEC men’s basketball game Wednesday night at Humphrey Coliseum, but n the end, the top-ranked Wildcats had too much offensive firepower as they pulled away to a 74-56 victory.

MSU fell to 12-16 overall and 5-10 in league play, while Kentucky improved to 28-0 and 15-0. The Wildcats have now won eight straight in the series.

“That’s one of the better basketball teams I have ever seen,” MSU coach Rick Ray said. “I thought we did some really good things. We limited some of their opportunities. The game went from an 8-point game to a 20-point game in the space of three minutes.

“First it happened because Kentucky is really good. But it also happened because we started having a bad shot selection. Once we stopped having success on offense, we went our own separate way on defense.”

Fred Thomas led MSU with 14 points, while Craig Sword added 10 points. With two early field goals, Sword – a junior guard – became the 34th Bulldog to score 1,000 career points.

MSU shot 37.3 percent from the field but failed to overcome 11 missed free throws.

Kentucky scored the game’s first four points which quickly led to a timeout. MSU recovered and battled back for an 8-8 tie on two free throws by Sword. UK followed with a 12-2 run to take a 20-10 lead with 10:26 left in the first half.

The Wildcats stretched the lead to 12 at 33-21. The Bulldogs then got the student body back on its feet with six-straight points, including a layup by Trivante Bloodman, two free throws by Gavin Ware and a dunk by Demetrius Houston.

A 3-pointer by UK’s Tyler Ulis as the half expired gave the Wildcats a 36-27 lead at the intermission.

MSU pulled within four at 41-37 on a layup by Roquez Johnson with 15:10 left in the game. The Wildcats followed with a 19-3 run to build a 60-40 lead with 8:44 left.

Still, the Bulldogs competed and chipped away at a 24-point deficit in the closing minutes.

For the contest, MSU hit 19 of 51 shots from the field (37.3 percent), 2 of 11 shots from 3-point range (18.2 percent) and 16 of 27 shots from the foul line (59.3 percent). Kentucky hit 28 of 57 shots from the field (49.1 percent), 6 of 13 shots from 3-point range (46.2 percent) and 12 of 13 shots from the foul line (92.3 percent).

Kentucky held a 35-30 rebounding advantage. The Bulldogs had six assists and eight turnovers, while the Wildcats had 15 assists and nine turnovers. MSU committed a season-low eight turnovers.

Ware led the Bulldogs with nine rebounds, while Houston had a career-high eight points. Sword also had two steals, giving him 142 for his career, which is ninth all-time at MSU.

“The 1,000 points doesn’t meant a lot to me right now because we lost the game,” Sword said. “It’s exciting to play the No. 1 team in the nation. Had we made free throws, it could have been a different game.”

Kentucky received 18 points from Trey Lyles, 16 points from Aaron Harrison, 14 points from Devin Booker and a double-double from Karl-Anthony Towns with 12 points and 10 rebounds.

MSU starts its final road swing of the season Saturday with a game at South Carolina. The Bulldogs and Gamecocks tip at 5 p.m. CT on the SEC Network.