The remedy is simple for the Tennessee men’s basketball team: start making more layups.

An abundance of missed shots at the rim cost the Volunteers a Southeastern Conference game Saturday at Kentucky, a contest that Tennessee led by 14 points at halftime. The 74-71 loss also cost them a spot in the Top 25 rankings.

When the Volunteers (16-7, 6-4 SEC) oppose Mississippi State (11-12, 3-7) on Wednesday night in Starkville, Miss., they will attempt to get back on track.

“These guys will bounce back,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said. “They have too much pride. They work too hard. Their work ethic is too good.

“We have not reached the ceiling with this team, and that’s a good thing right now.”

Tennessee’s shortcomings on finishing at the rim have been an issue throughout the season. The Volunteers’ inability to convert Saturday — Tennessee missed four of its seven layup attempts — led to Tennessee’s four-game winning streak ending.

Freshman sensation Nate Ament has been doing his part for the Volunteers. He scored 28 points in a victory over Ole Miss last week and poured in 29 against Kentucky.

In addition to missed layups, Ament lamented his team going just 17 of 25 (68%) at the free-throw line.

“We’ve got to make shots at the rim and free throws, and we’ve got to be mentally tougher,” he said.

Mississippi State will enter the game coming off an 88-68 loss to then-No. 21 Arkansas on Saturday. The Bulldogs allowed a 20-2 run early in the first half and never recovered. Mississippi State trailed by 16 after that sequence and never got closer than 13 points in the second half.

Against Tennessee, the Bulldogs will need to shore up some of their defensive deficiencies.

“Point-of-attack defense,” Mississippi State coach Chris Jans said, referring to where the team has struggled. “We are not doing a good enough job on a consistent basis with old-fashioned guarding the basketball.

“Too many times the offenses are getting the ball where they want to go. (Opponents) are getting us in rotation where this defense is not built to be in rotation. And we’re not providing the resistance needed to keep offenses from where they are trying to get.”

Josh Hubbard, the Bulldogs’ leading scorer at 20.6 points per game, led the team with 16 against the Razorbacks.

–Field Level Media

LIVIGNO, Italy — Freestyle skier Birk Ruud of Norway earned the gold medal in the men’s slopestyle event on Tuesday after an impeccable first run at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics.

Alex Hall, the gold medalist four years ago in Beijing, won silver under cloudy skies on the slopes in the mountain town of Livigno to extend Team USA’s remarkable run in the event over the years.

Luca Harrington of New Zealand claimed bronze as one of the youngest competitors at 21.

The slopestyle event features skiers who slide across rails and perform aerial tricks to impress the judges with difficulty and originality. The best score from each skier’s three runs determines the rankings.

Ruud’s superb first run put him at the top of the leaderboard from the start. Hall tried to catch him but fell backward after coming off a rail in his third run.

Final scores came in at 86.28 for Ruud, 85.75 for Hall and 85.15 for Harrington.

Ruud, 25, pumped his fists and hugged the other medalists as he took the podium. Hall, 27, clapped his hands and smiled.

Team USA have earned a slopestyle medal in every Olympics since the event was introduced to the schedule in 2014.

Jesper Tjader, the bronze medalist in Beijing, was in medal contention going into his third run of the day but crash-landed off a rail, sending one of his skies flying.

–Reuters, special to Field Level Media

TESERO, Italy — Norway’s Johannes Klaebo won the men’s classic cross-country ski sprint with ease on Tuesday for his seventh career Olympic gold medal, while Linn Svahn led a Swedish podium sweep in the women’s race at the Milan Cortina Games.

Ben Ogden took silver in the men’s race to give the U.S. its first men’s medal in cross-country skiing since Bill Koch’s silver in the 30km at the 1976 Olympics.

Norway’s Oskar Vike won the men’s bronze.

In the women’s event, Swedish skiers Jonna Sundling and Maja Dahlqvist won silver and bronze respectively.

Svahn’s gold was the first Olympic medal for the 26-year-old, and the second for Sweden in cross-country skiing at this Olympics, after compatriot Frida Karlsson won gold in the women’s skiathlon.

Tuesday’s race was the second gold medal for Klaebo in this Games and his seventh overall, moving the 29-year-old one step closer to passing compatriots Marit Bjoergen’s and Bjorn Daehlie’s record number of golds in the sport.

“It was good to already have done the first one, so that I could relax a little bit more and enjoy it. That was exactly what I did out there today,” said Klaebo after the race.

Similar to his victorious skiathlon performance, Klaebo exploded away from the pack on his way up one of the race course’s many steep hills. With victory guaranteed over the chasing pack, he eased up towards the end and cruised over the finish line in three minutes 39.74 seconds, 0.87 seconds ahead of Ogden.

SWEDISH WOMEN DOMINATE

On the women’s side, the three Swedish medalists pulled away midway through the race, charging uphill after three earlier qualifying rounds to get to the final.

U.S. skier Jessie Diggins, the highest-ranked female skier in the world and a medal contender, failed to move past the quarterfinals.

“Everyone has been talking about what a strong team we have. To make our mark and do the whole podium sweep is amazing,” said Svahn, who finished in four minutes 3.05 seconds, beating Sundling by 1.59 seconds.

Skiers said conditions were some of the best yet of the Games during early qualification rounds because colder temperatures led to faster, more compact snow. Things changed in later rounds, however, with the course turning slushier and slower as the day went on, they said.

Both gold medalists in the classic sprint events lauded the conditions and preparations on their skis after the race.

“Today we had an amazing team. The waxers did such an amazing job,” Svahn said.

–Reuters, special to Field Level Media