Dalton Knecht rallies No. 5 Tennessee in road win at Missouri, 72-67
No. 5 Tennessee was staring down the barrel at the worst loss of the season on the road against the worst team in the Southeastern Conference. Down seven points in the second half against a Missouri team that had lost 12 straight games and was suddenly playing in front of an energized home crowd at Mizzou Arena.
Then Dalton Knecht woke up. In an instant, the nightmare was over.
Knecht didn’t hit his first shot from the field until the 13:18 mark in the second half, but scored 15 of his 17 points after halftime and added 10 rebounds to lead Tennessee to a 72-67 comeback win in Columbia.
Tobe Awaka had a career-high 18 points and 10 rebounds off the bench and Jonas Aidoo had 14 to help keep the Vols (20-6, 10-3 SEC) in it before Knecht went off. Zakai Zeigler added 10 points.
Missouri (8-18, 0-13) got 24 points from Sean East II. Noah Carter had 20 and Nick Honor scored 10.
Knecht hit six shots in just under six minutes — a jumper at 13:18, a three at 12:43, a layup at 10:16, another three at 9:42, another jumper at 9:01 and yet another three at 8:23 — to help Tennessee go from down five to up eight.
Zeigler hit a three of his own with 6:51 left to stretch the lead to nine and give Tennessee seven straight made shots, then Awaka made two free throws a minute later to get the lead to double digits, at 11.
Missouri built its lead to as much as seven early in the second half, after starting 3-for-4 from the 3-point line after halftime.
Vols trailed by three at halftime after going 9-for-30 from the field, 0-for-9 from three
Tennessee trailed 29-26 at the end of an unwatchable first half. The Vols finished the half 9-for-30 from the field, including 0-for-9 from the 3-point line, and missed five of their 13 foul shots.
Knecht finished the half with two points on 0-for-6 shooting from the field. Awaka and Aidoo were the only players who made multiple shots from the floor before halftime with Awaka going 3-for-4 and Aidoo hitting 2 of 3.
Missouri missed its first 11 shots of the game before Tamar Bates finally hit a 3-pointer with 10:56 left in the first half. Tennessee was just as pedestrian, starting 1-for-8.
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After the 0-11 start, Mizzou made five its next eight shots to go from down five to up one. It was a 27-22 lead for the Tigers, the biggest of the half for the home team, after East scored five straight. Awaka answered with four straight of his own after Rick Barnes called a timeout.
Missouri finished the first half 8-for-25 from the floor, 3-for-10 from the 3-point line and went 10-for-13 at the foul line.
Up Next: No. 5 Tennessee vs. Texas A&M, Saturday, 8 p.m. ET, ESPN
Tennessee returns home to host Texas A&M on Saturday night at Thompson-Boling Arena. The Game is an 8 Eastern Time start on ESPN and comes just two weeks after the Aggies beat the Vols 85-69 at Reed Arena in College Station.
Auburn comes to Knoxville next Wednesday in a 7 p.m. ET game on ESPN2 to close the February schedule.
The tests continue in March with back-to-back road games at Alabama (March 2) and South Carolina (March 6) before closing the regular season at home against Kentucky on Senior Day in Knoxville (March 9).
The SEC Tournament is set for March 13-17 at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville and the NCAA Tournament bracket will be revealed on Sunday, March 17.
