Jontay Porter stars in Mizzou's win over Vanderbilt

Jontay Porter is 6-feet-11 and full of potential, but he seldom dunks. So maybe the rarity of this occurrence, combined with the importance of this Missouri game at Vanderbilt, led to Cuonzo Martin’s celebration.

The freshman went to the rim and caught a pass for an uncontested dunk, and before he could even finish the slam, his coach was already sprinting up the sideline in excitement, screaming. Porter's basket gave MU its largest lead of the game, 15 points with just more than 4 minutes remaining, and was the highlight of a 74-66 Tiger win that snapped a three-game losing streak.

It took a bumpy first half before finally happening, but Missouri dismantled the worst defense in the SEC. The Commodores tried leaving Porter open when he popped to the perimeter after setting screens, but that didn’t work. They tried switching smaller men onto him, but that didn’t work. They tried playing a zone defense, and well, you get the point.

“We’ve got a special ability of making the other big on the other team look really good against us,” Vandy coach Bryce Drew said. “Tonight was kind of par for that course.”

Porter torched Vanderbilt for a career high 24 points on 9-of-10 shooting. He came into this contest having shot 34 percent over Missouri’s last five games.

“That,” Porter said after the win, “was pretty refreshing.”

As a team, Missouri made 57.8 percent of its shots. The Tigers have only shot better once this season, against Wagner. They made 12 of the 22 three-pointers they took on Tuesday. Porter made all four of his.

Porter’s third three of the game, which came just a few minutes into the second half, gave Mizzou its first lead since early in the game. The shot also gave Porter the first of the seven points he would score during a 9-4 Tiger run. The other bucket on that run came on a layup by junior Kevin Puryear, who cut into the lane and caught a perfect Porter bounce pass out of a double team.

Porter finished with six assists, including two that led to threes by Jordan Barnett, who scored 17 points. After one of those Barnett threes, Porter extended his arms out to the side and threw up three fingers on each hand.

When the Commodores played a 2-3 zone defense, the 6-foot-11 forward — who also grabbed 7 rebounds — stationed himself near the free-throw line and either made an easy jumper or spurred some of the best ball movement Missouri showed in weeks. The Tigers had worked on him exploiting zones after he failed to do so against Texas A&M earlier this season.

Despite the three-game losing streak Mizzou (19-11, 9-8) carried into this game, the Tigers were still in the vast majority of NCAA Tournament projections, so this wasn’t a must-win, but it was close. The Commodores (11-19, 5-12) had a RPI of 119, the lowest in the Southeastern Conference, and Mizzou had already lost two games against teams with RPIs above 100: Mississippi and Illinois.

The Commodores came into the game last in the conference in block rate. They were also last in three-point defense and defensive effective field-goal percentage. They were last in defensive turnover rate, too. They didn’t look that bad to start, though.

Freshman center Jeremiah Tilmon — who finished with 7 points and 6 rebounds — was effective early, scoring Missouri’s first two baskets off post-ups. But Mizzou didn’t take advantage of every other defensive flaw the Commodores have — mostly because the Tigers could not keep the ball. They lost it nine times in the first half.

“It just takes a physical toll on me,” Martin said of the turnovers.

Vanderbilt, which scored 10 points off turnovers in the first half, went ahead by seven points, its largest lead of the game, about 11 minutes into the game. It took a 32-30 lead into halftime, when Martin told his players he could not understand how they gave the ball away so often without even facing a press. He offered a sarcastic command: Just turn the ball over 15 times — a number the Tigers reach most games — so they could get that out of the way and move on.

His team did not listen to him, though. The Tigers finished the game with just 13 turnovers. They tightened up their defense, too.

The Commodores went more than 6 minutes without a field goal in the second half. Jeff Roberson, who led Vanderbilt with 19 points, converted just 2 of his 8 field goal attempts in the second half.

“His best defensive job all season,” Martin said of Barnett’s work stopping Roberson to finish the game. “That’s the guy I thought he could be defensively.”

In its previous two games, Mizzou gave up 90 points to Ole Miss and 87 to Kentucky. Barnett had said MU needed to improve its defense to stop its skid. Missouri took multiple charges against Vanderbilt, and Barnett thought his team did a better job of communicating. That helped the Tigers regularly switch defenders against the Commodores and utilize MU’s size advantage.

This win does not secure Mizzou’s first NCAA Tournament berth since 2013, but it puts the Tigers closer to doing so. And just like their win at Alabama that ended their last three-game losing streak, this game prevented a slide from turning into a free fall.

“It’s not easy to drop three and rebound,” Martin said. “It just says something about them.”

Just warming up

For a second straight game, star freshman Michael Porter Jr. warmed up with the Tigers before putting on a sweatsuit for the tipoff.

Porter, who has played just 2 minutes this season, in the team's season opener against Iowa State, underwent back surgery in November. He received full clearance for basketball activities last week.

Martin said Tuesday that Porter is “looking a lot better.” As for whether Porter will play for Mizzou this season, Martin said, “Who knows? We'll see.”

MISSOURI 74, VANDERBILT 66

Percentages: FG .578, FT .714. Three-Point Goals: 12-22, .545 (J.Porter 4-4, Barnett 4-8, Robertson 3-6, Geist 1-2, VanLeer 0-2). Team Rebounds: 3. Blocked Shots: 3 (Tilmon 2, J.Porter). Turnovers: 13 (Robertson 3, Geist 2, J.Porter 2, Puryear 2, Tilmon 2, Nikko, VanLeer). Steals: 6 (Robertson 2, Barnett, J.Porter, Rau, VanLeer). Technical Fouls: None. Fouled Out: None.

Percentages: FG .421, FT .500. Three-Point Goals: 13-30, .433 (LaChance 5-10, Roberson 3-7, Willis 2-5, Brown 1-1, Lee 1-1, Evans 1-2, Obinna 0-1, Toye 0-3). Team Rebounds: 3. Blocked Shots: 1 (Baptiste). Turnovers: 12 (Evans 3, Brown 2, Lee 2, Roberson 2, Baptiste, LaChance, Willis). Steals: 7 (Brown 3, Roberson 3, Willis). Technical Fouls: None. Fouled Out: None.

Half: Vanderbilt 32-30. Att: 8,812.

This story was originally published February 27, 2018 at 8:16 PM with the headline "Jontay Porter stars in Mizzou's win over Vanderbilt."