Offense beats defense as Missouri sends Tennessee home

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SEC-189647 — (Photo by Dr. Michael Huang | Kentucky Sports Radio)

Missouri entered the weekend having never advanced to Saturday at the SEC Tournament since joining the league in 2012-13. That streak finally ended in attempt No. 10.

Behind their top-10 offense, Missouri pulled away from Tennessee late for a 79-71 victory over the Vols in a game that featured 15 ties and 13 lead changes. A 10-2 run by the Tigers in the final 1:45 helped Mizzou pull away in Nashville.

The game gave us a unique matchup as the Vols own the No. 1 defense in adjusted efficiency. But similar to the regular season meeting on Rocky Top, UT had no answers for Mizzou’s spread offense. The Tigers scored 86 points (1.34 points per possession) in a head-to-head win on Feb. 11 and delivered again on Friday afternoon with 79 points (1.18 points per possession) against the SEC’s best defense.

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The SEC Tournament has not treated Missouri well. In 2016, the Tigers had a postseason ban and did not participate. Since joining the league, the program was just 6-8 in the SEC Tournament before Friday’s win. First-year head coach Dennis Gates and star big Kobe Brown (24 points, 9 rebounds) helped change that this year as Mizzou earned the No. 4 seed in 2022-23 and will now play in the semifinals for the first time in program history.

Tennessee will head to Selection Sunday with a 23-10 overall record as the Vols fall to 5-6 in their last 11 games. The Big Orange enters the weekend as a projected No. 3 seed at Bracket Matrix. Rick Barnes is now 11-6 in the SEC Tournament since arriving in Knoxville.