Kennedy Chandler and Josiah-Jordan James scored 18 points apiece as No. 19 Tennessee continued its winning ways Wednesday night with a 72-63 triumph over Mississippi State inside Humphrey Coliseum in Starkville.
The Volunteers won their sixth straight Southeastern Conference contest to improve to 17-6 overall and 8-3 within the league, while Mississippi State dropped to 14-9 and 5-5. Tennessee remained in the SEC regular-season title chase along with Auburn (10-1 in league play), Kentucky (9-2) and Arkansas (8-3), with each of those teams still having to visit Knoxville.
James has now surpassed his scoring average in six straight games, while Chandler fell to the floor with an apparent cramp with 2:42 remaining but returned with 1:16 to play. Chandler finished 8-of-13 from the floor and had five steals.
Santiago Vescovi chipped in 11 points for the winners.
A D.J. Jeffries layup 18 seconds into the game put the Bulldogs up 2-0, but Tennessee countered with 14 straight points on the strength of consecutive buckets by Brandon Huntley-Hatfield and 3-pointers from Vescovi and James. Huntley-Hatfield made the inaugural start of his freshman season, joining Chandler, Vescovi, James and Uros Plavsic in the first five.