Tennessee Volunteers (16-7, 6-4 SEC) at Mississippi State Bulldogs (11-12, 3-7 SEC)

Starkville, Mississippi; Wednesday, 9 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: Tennessee visits Mississippi State after Nate Ament scored 29 points in Tennessee’s 74-71 loss to the Kentucky Wildcats.

The Bulldogs are 7-5 in home games. Mississippi State is 2-3 in games decided by less than 4 points.

The Volunteers are 6-4 in conference games. Tennessee is second in the SEC with 17.4 assists per game led by Ja’Kobi Gillespie averaging 5.3.

Mississippi State scores 77.4 points, 7.6 more per game than the 69.8 Tennessee gives up. Tennessee has shot at a 47.1% clip from the field this season, 4.0 percentage points higher than the 43.1% shooting opponents of Mississippi State have averaged.

The Bulldogs and Volunteers meet Wednesday for the first time in conference play this season.

TOP PERFORMERS: Josh Hubbard is averaging 20.6 points and 3.6 assists for the Bulldogs. Jayden Epps is averaging 13.3 points and 3.0 rebounds while shooting 35.7% over the last 10 games.

Ament is averaging 17.6 points and 6.5 rebounds for the Volunteers. Gillespie is averaging 3.1 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games.

LAST 10 GAMES: Bulldogs: 3-7, averaging 74.1 points, 36.1 rebounds, 11.2 assists, 4.6 steals and 4.8 blocks per game while shooting 42.5% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 82.2 points per game.

Volunteers: 6-4, averaging 78.9 points, 38.8 rebounds, 14.4 assists, 7.8 steals and 2.7 blocks per game while shooting 44.4% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 77.7 points.

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.