Vanderbilt’s Scotty Pippen Jr. will look to post his fifth straight 20-point outing Saturday when the Commodores battle Mississippi State in Southeastern Conference play in Starkville, Miss.
The star guard is averaging 25.5 points during the four-game stretch, but Vanderbilt (14-13, 6-9 SEC) has lost three of the contests.
Pippen leads the SEC with a 19.7 scoring average. He scored 26 in Tuesday’s 74-72 home loss against No. 24 Alabama and moved into 20th place on the Commodores’ all-time list, with 1,374 points.
Pippen had a career-best six steals against the Crimson Tide and has 21 over the past six games to give him 55 on the season (2.5 per game). He also leads the Commodores with 4.8 assists.
Mississippi State (16-12, 7-8) will attempt to slow down Pippen, who has scored 20 or more points in seven of the past nine games.
The Bulldogs have lost seven of their past 10 games after dropping a 66-56 decision at South Carolina on Tuesday.
The funk has ended any hopes of Mississippi State landing an at-large NCAA Tournament bid. But Bulldogs coach Ben Howland isn’t worrying about that.
“I’m just focused on getting the win against Vanderbilt,” Howland said. “They’re going to be very difficult to beat. It’s the best Vanderbilt team we’ve played against since my second year (2016-17). They’re playing really well. They’ve got a preseason player of the year in Scotty Pippen Jr.”
Mississippi State received a strong performance from forward Tolu Smith in the loss to South Carolina.
Smith scored 21 points on 8-of-13 shooting for his second 20-point outing of the season. The strong effort came after he scored in single digits in three of the previous five games.
Smith’s 12.4 average is second on the squad behind Iverson Molinar, who ranks third in the SEC with an 18.0 clip. Iverson has scored in double figures in all 28 games this season and has nine 20-point efforts.
Mississippi State has been much stronger playing at home this season where the Bulldogs are 13-2, compared to just 1-8 on the road.
The Commodores, meantime, have lost five consecutive road games.
At Alabama on Tuesday, Vanderbilt gave Alabama all it could handle but was unable to make the key plays down the stretch. With six seconds remaining, Jordan Wright’s drive for a tying layup came up empty when the ball rolled off the rim.
“We didn’t execute as well as we could have,” said Commodores coach Jerry Stackhouse, “but it shouldn’t have came down to that.”
Vanderbilt and Mississippi State split last season’s two meetings when Pippen averaged 18 points and 10.5 assists.
–Field Level Media