Antonio Reeves scored a game-high 27 points and No. 8 Kentucky opened up a 20-point, first-half lead en route to a 90-77 win over Mississippi State on Wednesday in Lexington, Ky.
Rob Dillingham added 16 points for Kentucky and Tre Mitchell contributed 15, making all five of his shots from the field. The Wildcats (13-3, 3-1 Southeastern Conference) canned 55.6 percent of their field-goal tries and earned a 27-10 advantage in free throw attempts, connecting on 23.
Tolu Smith III scored 26 points for the Bulldogs (12-5, 1-3) and Trey Fort added 13, but they didn’t get enough help. Freshman guard Josh Hubbard, their second-leading scorer, made 1 of 11 shots and tallied only three points.
Mississippi State hit 44.9 percent of its field-goal attempts and needed a strong second half to do that. It made just 11 of 31 attempts (35.5 percent) in the first half, which essentially decided the game.
Coming off a 97-92 overtime loss Saturday at Texas A&M, Kentucky wasted little time putting its stamp on this one. The Wildcats owned a double-digit lead just over 5 1/2 minutes into the game when Reed Sheppard fed Reeves in transition for a layup that made it 15-5.
The Bulldogs made one decent run right after that, closing within 18-14 when Hubbard made his only shot, a 3-pointer. But the Wildcats responded with an 9-2 spurt that restored a double-figure cushion after Dillingham made two foul shots at the 9:22 mark.
A run of nine straight points, capped by four free throws by Reeves, increased the margin to 40-22 with 4:24 remaining until halftime. Reeves pushed the margin to 20 on a layup with 1:04 left, and Kentucky subsequently headed for the locker room with a 47-29 advantage.
Mississippi State was able to pull within 49-43 with 17:17 left in the game when D.J. Jeffries canned a 3-pointer, but Dillingham’s jumper on the next possession started a 12-3 run that restored control for the Wildcats.
–Field Level Media
