COLUMBIA, Mo. — Tennessee Men's Basketball beat Missouri 72-67 on the road Thursday night, thanks in large part to a strong second-half performance from Dalton Knecht.
The fifth-ranked Vols and Tigers, who were 0-12 in SEC play coming into the night, played about as ugly of a first four minutes of basketball as possible. Missouri led 1-0 after the first media timeout as both teams missed all ten combined shots in the early going.
Through the next media timeout, Tennessee continued to not let Missouri make a shot from the field. Jahmai Mashack and Jordan Gainey made shots from the field and Zakai Zeigler made some free throws for a 6-2 lead.
Missouri started scoring some points, aided by two three-pointers as they trimmed the lead to 11-10 with 7:46 left in the first half. Both teams had seven turnovers up to his point in the game. Tennessee and Missouri traded the lead a couple of times after that. The Vols called a timeout with 6:34 left in the half after the Tigers scored inside a couple of times and held a 14-13 lead.
Missouri led by three at the under-four-minute timeout. The Vols trailed 22-19 and were shooting just 28.6% from the field. The Tigers went up five points went Sean East drilled a three-pointer to put them up 27-22. The Vols trailed at halftime 29-26, shooting just 30% from the field. Tobe Awaka was the one Vol that shined with eight points and six rebounds in the first half.
The Vols started the second half with a made free throw from Jonas Aidoo and a three-pointer from Zeigler to take a 30-29 lead. Missouri responded immediately with a three of their own from Noah Carter to take a 32-30 lead.
UT tied it at 32-32, but then Missouri took a six-point lead with back-to-back threes from Nick Honor and East for a 38-32 lead.
Tennessee fought back. Down 44-39, Dalton Knecht pulled up on an off-balance shot and drilled the baseline jumper to get within three points. After a Missouri bucket, Knecht struck on a three-pointer and then on the next possession drove the the rim and missed, but Aidoo put back the miss for a layup. The Vols tied the game at 46-46 with 12:08 to go.
Honor put Missouri back up three after hitting one from deep, but Knecht kept the foot on the pedal. He drove to the bucket again aggressively, missed, but once again created a chance for Aidoo to score on a putback to trim the deficit to one. Still down one, Knecht came barrelling into the paint again and made a tough layup for the lead. Then he drilled a three to put UT up 53-49.
After a three-pointer from Missouri, Knecht pulled up for a jumper and made that to put the Vols up 55-52. Then he splashed another three-pointer to extend the lead to six. Then bulleted a pass to Awaka for a 60-52 lead with 7:51 to go.
Up 60-54, UT got a three from Zeigler and then two free throws from Awaka for a double digit lead, up 65-54. Awake continued to be a force, slamming home a dunk with 4:03 to go off a Zeigler pass to put UT up 67-54.
The Vols were able to close out the game from there for the win.
Awaka finished with 18 points and ten rebounds, Knecht scored 15 of his 17 points in that five-minute stretch in the second half that swung momentum. He also had ten rebounds.
Tennessee hosts Texas A&M on Saturday at 8 p.m. inside the Food City Center.
