No. 5 Tennessee 'punched back' at Missouri with the two-big lineup

Rick Barnes looked down at the box score at halftime and saw the numbers. And he shared them with his Tennessee basketball team, which trailed Missouri 29-26 at Mizzou Arena in Columbia.

The Vols shot just 9-for-30 from the field and Tobe Awaka and Jonas Aidoo combined for five of the made shots. 

“Honestly, I was pretty upset at halftime,” Barnes said after the game, “because I felt like we were just had lost our poise and guys were all just trying to shoot the ball, hope it would go in.”

So the head helped the Vols regain some poise. Barnes wanted his team to get back to what was working.

“I said, you guys, Jonas is a pretty good player,” Barnes said, “and Tobe.”

Barnes went with a bigger lineup in the second half, with both Aidoo and Awaka in the post together, and No. 5 Tennessee clicked, sparking a comeback that turned a seven-point deficit into as much as a 13-point lead on the way to beating Missouri 72-67.

Tobe Awaka and Jonas Aidoo at Missouri: 32 points, 14 rebounds

Aidoo finished with 14 points and four rebounds in 31 minutes. Awaka scored a career-high 18 points and had 10 rebounds in his 22 minutes. 

“I knew when coming out of the locker room I was going to go with a big lineup,” Barnes said, “which is the most we’ve done it all year because one, I wanted us to rebound the ball and we knew they were going to change defenses. 

“And with that,” Barnes continued, “we’ve got a set, a certain thing that we want to run. And one of those that we tried to do with those guys, we’re going to take good shots and let those guys go rebound it.”

Awaka had 10 points in the second half, going 3-for-4 from the field and 4-for-4 at the foul line. Aidoo had 10 points on 4-for-6 shooting. The two combined for seven rebounds after halftime, including five on the offensive glass. 

“Our older guys sort of galvanized us in the locker room,” Awaka said. “And the second half, we punched back.”

Awaka’s previous career high in scoring was 11. In SEC games, it was just nine. 

“Coach Barnes is heavy on execution,” Awaka said. “And just overall, we didn’t execute the way that we wanted to offensively in the first half, turned the ball over.”

Up Next: No. 5 Tennessee vs. Texas A&M, Saturday, 8 p.m. ET, ESPN

The Vols cleaned things up with the bigger lineup. Tennessee was plus-18 when Awaka was on the floor and a plus-2 during Aidoo’s minutes.

Awaka said he loves playing alongside Aidoo, given how they fit together in the post.

“He’s a little bit more finesse, lengthy and (I’m) more of a bruiser,” Awaka said. “So I think that we compliment each other pretty well. He can stretch the floor pretty well playing on the outside. I can sort of play towards the inside and we can play off each other pretty well.”

After Aidoo scored 23 points and 12 rebounds in the win at Arkansas last week, Barnes credited his big man with playing with force. Awaka showed that same force at Missouri. 

The Vols need more of it from both players.

“I know that like every game that I go into has a different kind of DNA,” Awaka said, “teams are going to play you different, so sometimes I might need to be more aggressive. Other times I might need to be more finesse, get to certain spots. But overall it’s just playing with intent and knowing what the game plan is coming in.”