T.O. Barrett scored a career-high 28 points as Missouri defeated No. 22 Tennessee 73-69 on Tuesday night in Columbia, Mo.
Mark Mitchell added 23 points as the Tigers (19-9, 9-6 Southeastern Conference) won for the fifth time in seven games to bolster their NCAA Tournament case.
Ja’Kobi Gillespie led the Volunteers (20-8, 10-5) with 19 points. Nate Ament scored 17, Felix Okpara had 15 points and eight rebounds and Bishop Boswell added 13 points.
The Volunteers, who had a four-game winning streak snapped, outrebounded the Tigers 42-30, but they turned the ball over 15 times and allowed Missouri to shoot 61.5% in the second half.
The Tigers edged ahead 36-34 with 15:58 left in the game with Trent Pierce hitting a 3-point jumper and Mitchell converting a three-point play.
Okpara scored the first 11 points for Tennessee in the half to allow the Volunteers to keep pace. But Missouri used a 13-3 surge – capped by Anthony Robinson II’s two 3-point jumpers — to pull ahead 56-48 with 7:52 left.
Barrett scored eight points in a 2 1/2-minute span to keep Missouri ahead.
After Mitchell’s three-point play extended the Tigers’ lead to 67-60 with 3:34 left, Gillespie scored the next five points.
Barrett’s drive with 57 seconds left gave Missouri a 69-65 lead. Ament answered with a put-back with 25.4 seconds left, but Crews hit four free throws in the final 18.5 seconds left to seal the victory.
Tennessee broke out to a 12-2 lead in the first 3:35. Ament scored in the lane to start that run and his corner 3-point jumper capped it.
Missouri missed four of its first five shots, committed two unforced turnovers early and allowed the Volunteers to gather six early offensive rebounds.
After another corner 3-pointer by Ament pushed the Volunteers’ lead to 21-12, the Tigers scored the next eight points with Barrett scoring three times at the rim.
Gillespie ended Tennessee’s scoring drought with a deep 3-point jumper with 4:03 left in the first half. After the Tigers moved ahead 26-24 with Trent Burns and Barrett throwing down drunks, Gillespie scored the last five points of the half to put Tennessee up 29-26.
Missouri missed all nine shots from 3-point range in the first 20 minutes. But the Tigers survived the half by outscoring the Volunteers 18-10 in the paint.
