Missouri holds off No. 21 Tennessee, snaps losing streak against ranked teams

For the third time in as many weeks, Missouri point guard Jordan Geist was in the middle of a play in the final seconds of a close game.

This time he did not disappoint.

Geist hit a pair of free throws to secure Missouri’s first victory over a ranked team in more than four years as the Tigers beat no. 21 Tennessee 59-55 on Wednesday night.

“He plays like that from start to finish,” MU graduate transfer Kassius Robertson said of Geist. “He’s a tough-nosed kid. I’m really happy that he’s on my team.”

Geist, a junior point guard, missed a last-second shot in Saturday’s loss at Arkansas and had his pass to Robertson intercepted by Florida guard Chris Chiozza in the closing seconds the previous week.

On Wednesday, his play on both sides of the ball helped secure a win that should help Missouri’s resume as it looks to end another four-year drought — making the NCAA Tournament.

The game marked MU coach Cuonzo Martin’s first matchup against a program he previously coached. He was at Tennessee from 2011 to 2014.

Missouri entered the game leading the conference in three-point shooting and promptly went 0 for 7 from behind the arc in the first half. Both of Missouri’s sharpshooting seniors in Robertson and Jordan Barnett combined for six points on 2-for-9 shooting and missed multiple open shots.

The Tigers’ offense was powered by junior Kevin Puryear, a Blue Springs South graduate. After going eight games without scoring double-digits, he finished with a team-high 12 points and 10 rebounds.

With Missouri trailing 17-9 in the first half, Puryear helped power a 7-0 Tigers run to get the game within one possession with 8:32 left in the half.

Tennessee’s scoring duo of Admiral Schofield and Grant Williams gave Missouri all kinds of problems in the first half as the pair combined for 12 points from all over the floor. Schofield’s action-figure-like build gave Missouri some extra physicality to deal with in the paint.

Puryear hit shots from underneath the basket and inside the arc, which helped open things up for freshman Jeremiah Tilmon. Tilmon stayed out of foul trouble the entire first half, logging 14 minutes after struggling in recent games. He had a layup with 3:54 left in the first half to tie the game at 23-23 and added another with just over a minute left to tie the game at 27-27 after he split a pair of defenders.

“Just ball-hunting. Really just doing everything I can on the defensive boards,” Puryear said of his play. “Everything else took care of itself.”

Despite getting minimal production in the first half from Robertson and Barnett, who have been the spark plugs on offense the whole season, Missouri went into halftime with the game tied at 27-27.

The Tigers’ shooting struggles continued into the second half. Robertson and Barnett both had wide-open shots rim out from inside the paint and three-point territory. But they returned the favor on the defensive end as the Volunteers also struggled from deep. For the game, Tennessee shot 23.8 percent from beyond the arc.

“We didn’t shoot it extremely well,” Robertson said. “We won that game on the defensive end. We struggled from three, but we made them struggle from three as well.”

Barnett began to heat up in the second half after hitting a jump shot 2 minutes in and his first three minutes later to extend Missouri’s lead to seven. Tennessee stormed back and tied the game at 36-36 with 13:07 left in the second half when Williams, Kyle Alexander and James Daniel III all hit shots to chip away at Missouri’s lead.

Missouri took the Volunteers’ punch-back well, something that hasn’t been in the case the entire season.

Barnett’s hot streak allowed the Tigers to build another lead with help from Geist.

Geist hit a three with just under 10 minutes left to give Missouri a 43-41 lead, and then threw a lob to Barnett, which sent Mizzou Arena into fits and caused Tennessee coach Rick Barnes to call a timeout. Barnett played for Barnes during his freshman year at Texas.

“I yelled at (Barnett), I said, ‘you know, you’ve gotten better looking,’” Barnes said. “He didn’t want to acknowledge it, but he cracked a little grin. He’s everything we thought he’d be. We thought he was going to be a terrific player for us at Texas. I wish we had him at Tennessee.”

Right out of the timeout, Barnett made a block right in front of his former coach and fed Geist to extend Missouri’s lead to six points.

The Tigers’ lead got as high as 10 points after a three by Jontay Porter, but it dwindled as Schofield and Alexander continued to hit shots to prevent Missouri from running away with the game. Porter finished with 10 points and seven rebounds.

Tennessee trailed by 55-54 going into the final minute of the game, and had the ball down by three with 14 seconds remaining after Geist’s two free throws. Martin had the Tigers foul Daniel, after he ran off some time, in order to take away the three-point shot. Daniel missed the first of two free throws, which caused Tennessee to foul Puryear, who hit both shots. The Tigers won the game despite going the last 6:43 of the second half without hitting a shot from the floor.

The win snapped a 19-game losing streak against ranked teams and marked Missouri’s first win over a ranked team since the Tigers beat No. 18 UCLA on Dec. 9, 2013.

“Big moment for Mizzou basketball,” Puryear said. “Big moment for this team. Especially for the guys that are returning. We took a lot of bumps our freshman and sophomore years. It’s a great feeling.”

MISSOURI 59, No. 21 TENNESSEE 55

This story was originally published January 17, 2018 at 10:13 PM with the headline "Missouri holds off No. 21 Tennessee, snaps losing streak against ranked teams."