No. 14 Mississippi State hosts No. 6 Kentucky after Butler's 20-point outing

Published Jan. 10, 2025 3:43 a.m. ET

Associated Press

Kentucky Wildcats (12-3, 1-1 SEC) at Mississippi State Bulldogs (14-1, 2-0 SEC)

Starkville, Mississippi; Saturday, 8:30 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: No. 6 Kentucky takes on No. 14 Mississippi State after Lamont Butler scored 20 points in Kentucky's 82-69 loss to the Georgia Bulldogs.

The Bulldogs have gone 7-0 at home. Mississippi State is eighth in the SEC at limiting opponent scoring, allowing 66.5 points while holding opponents to 40.6% shooting.

The Wildcats are 1-1 in SEC play. Kentucky is third in college basketball scoring 88.8 points per game while shooting 48.2%.

Mississippi State makes 47.6% of its shots from the field this season, which is 6.1 percentage points higher than Kentucky has allowed to its opponents (41.5%). Kentucky averages 9.8 made 3-pointers per game this season, 2.5 more made shots on average than the 7.3 per game Mississippi State gives up.

The Bulldogs and Wildcats face off Saturday for the first time in conference play this season.

TOP PERFORMERS: Josh Hubbard is averaging 17.1 points and 3.3 assists for the Bulldogs.

Otega Oweh is scoring 15.7 points per game and averaging 3.9 rebounds for the Wildcats.

LAST 10 GAMES: Bulldogs: 9-1, averaging 81.4 points, 38.0 rebounds, 16.4 assists, 9.4 steals and 4.3 blocks per game while shooting 47.8% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 66.1 points per game.

Wildcats: 7-3, averaging 84.7 points, 34.5 rebounds, 16.7 assists, 7.0 steals and 4.0 blocks per game while shooting 46.0% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 77.6 points.

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