Tennessee knocks out Mississippi State 69-53

By: Associated Press

Posted: Thu 5:18 PM, Mar 14, 2013

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Jordan McRae scored 17 points Thursday as fifth-seeded Tennessee defeated No. 13 seed Mississippi State 69-53 in the second round of the Southeastern Conference tournament.

Tennessee (20-11) won for the ninth time in its last 10 games to advance to a Friday quarterfinal against No. 4 seed Alabama (20-11) in a matchup of NCAA tournament bubble teams. Tennessee and Alabama split their regular-season matchups, with the home team winning each time.

Trae Golden had 15 points and Jarnell Stokes and Quinton Chievous added 10 points apiece for Tennessee. Chievous' 10 points represented a career high for the redshirt freshman.

Craig Sword scored 19 points, Colin Borchert had 12 and Trivante Bloodman added 10 for Mississippi State (10-22). The Bulldogs entered the SEC tournament with only six scholarship players.

Mississippi State scored the first four points of the game, but Tennessee answered with a 12-0 run and never looked back.

Arkansas rallies past LSU 4-1 at SEC tournament

We ask that the following Community Standards be followed:

Comments must not be profane or vulgar.

Comments must not use hate speech, racial slurs, or violent descriptions.

We encourage varying views to be shared. We do ask commenters to not personally attack other readers, groups, people featured in our stories, or other posters for disagreeing with their views.

Comments must not contain negative, comparative debates between community standards of cities or towns.

Comments must contribute to the discussion, flaming and/or trolling will not be tolerated.

Comments must be truthful and not intentionally falsified. Providing a source link is encouraged.

If you find that a comment violates the above rules, please use the flagging option located to the right of the comment to notify the moderators.
For a complete list of guidelines, please follow this link:
http://www.kbtx.com/home/misc/Online-Commenting-Policy-181579421.html