By Kenneth Cross
No. 25 Missouri held off No. 17 Tennessee, 79-71, after Nick Honor and D’Moi Hodge made back-to-back threes to give the Tigers a 75-69 lead with 1:25 to play.
“The key play to me was Nick Honor coming to the time out and saying, ‘Coach, give me a ball screen,’” said Missouri coach Dennis Gates. “We gave him a ball screen and he was able to knock down a big-time three-point shot.”
Just inside of a minute, Kobe Brown stunted the Vols as he picked up a long rebound off of a long miss on a three-point shot by Hodge.
Hodge and Brown combined for 50 points for coach Dennis Gates in his first SEC Tournament game. Hodge scored 26 points and was 9-of-16 from the field with four threes while Brown was 9-of-13 and posted 24 points and nine boards.
Missouri outscored Tennessee, 38-26, in the paint while both teams were an identical 10-of-26 from three.
Vols guard Jahmai Mashack hit a three-pointer at the buzzer to give Tennessee a 33-30 halftime lead just after Kobe Brown’s triple with nine seconds left had drawn Mizzou even at 30-30.
Santiago Vescovi hit three triples in the first half as two of those were at the outset of the game. After Vescovi’s third triple, Missouri had a 6-0 sprint when Kobe Brown had a tough post up off the left box in giving the Tigers a 27-25 lead with 1:52 to play.
Vescovi led five Volunteers in double figures with 17 points while Tyreke Key posted 16. Tennessee outscored Missouri, 26-11, off the bench and had points off of 11 Tigers turnovers.
“We have gone through so much that mental toughness has really gone up in the team and us together,” said Jahmai Mashack.