Mizzou Tigers basketball continues losing streak, gets blown out by No. 17 Tennessee
Another game, another loss for the Missouri Tigers.
The Mizzou men’s basketball team was defeated 80-61 by the No. 17 Tennessee Volunteers on Tuesday night at Mizzou Arena.
The Tigers (10-18, 4-11 SEC) have now lost four games in a row and nine of their last 11. The 19-point defeat was their 10th by at least 17 points this season. The Tigers now sit at 13th place in the SEC.
“If you’ve played sport and you’re a competitor, then you could imagine what the mood in the locker room is,” Missouri head coach Cuonzo Martin said. “I know I wouldn’t be smiling and having a party, that’s just my nature as a competitor.”
Any signs of an improved offensive effort have disappeared during the current losing streak. Missouri has shot under 41% from the field and been held under 65 points in each of the four contests.
On Tuesday night, the Tigers made 19 of 52 (36.5%) shots and went 5 of 20 (25%) from deep. As has become the norm this season, they went on lengthy scoring droughts — including one for seven minutes in the second half — and struggled to take care of the ball.
“With (Tennessee’s) defense, you gotta be able to make one-on-one plays,” Martin said. “That’s an area we have to continue to grow in.”
Missouri wasn’t great on the defensive end either, allowing Tennessee to make 50% of its shots from beyond the arc. The Tigers couldn’t defend Kennedy Chandler, who went off for 23 points — but more on that below.
“That’s just on us as players continuing to go out there and compete,” Missouri’s Javon Pickett said. “Like I say almost every time, I feel like our coaches do a great job of scouting report, telling us what to do, what not to do — it’s on us to continue to go out there and do everything we need to do day in and day out.”
Here are some key takeaways from the game.
Kennedy Chandler puts on a show
Tennessee’s Kennedy Chandler had his way on both ends of the floor on Tuesday night. He was dominant.
“He’s a talented young player,” Martin said. “Your game plan is to keep him in front. You’re looking — for a guy that fast — not to give many angles.”
Chandler, who played his final year of high school at Sunrise Christian and played for the Kansas City Mokan Elite AAU program, got going early. He scored 14 of the Volunteers’ 36 points in the first half.
The star freshman guard finished with 23 points on 9-of-12 shooting and had eight rebounds, six assists and two steals. He didn’t turn the ball over once.
“A lot of that is on me,” DaJuan Gordon said. “... I let him beat me in transition. I should have stopped the ball higher or forced him towards the middle to his left hand — he’s a right hand driver. ... We just didn’t lock in on the scouting report.”
First-half run puts Tennessee ahead
Missouri kept things close for most of the first half, until it didn’t.
The game was tied 17-17 with a little over 10 minutes left in the half. But Tennessee stepped into full gear and went on a 11-0 run with the Tigers going scoreless for around five minutes.
It was Mizzou’s mistakes that got the run going.
Trevon Brazile failed to box out after a missed shot from Chandler, allowing Brandon Huntley-Hartfield to rise up and grab an offensive rebound. The Tennessee forward then scored a putback dunk.
On the very next play, Chandler disrupted a pass from Jarron “Boogie” Coleman to Gordon. Chandler then stormed down the length of the court and threw down a one-handed jam of his own to give Tennessee a 23-17 lead and force Martin to call timeout. The Volunteers’ run continued from there, and they were in full control of the ball game.
Tennessee added to its lead with a 9-0 run in the second half. Less than halfway through the final period, the Tigers were down 20 points.
Tennessee proves the tougher team
Tennessee had the edge in every way on Tuesday night.
Missouri was outscored 34-24 in the paint. The team also lost the rebounding battle, 40-34, as it often failed to box out.
“We gotta turn (the grit) back up, especially on the rebounds,” Pickett said. “I feel like we give up a lot of offensive rebounds, so we just gotta continue to hit somebody.”
Tennessee grabbed 12 offensive rebounds, two of which came from the 6-foot Chandler, and turned those into 11 second-chance points.
The Tigers turned the ball over 13 times, with eight of those counting as steals for the Volunteers, who entered the game ranking eighth in the country in that category. The Vols scored 16 points off those mistakes.
Though these types of statistics have become the norm this season for Missouri, fatigue was likely a factor here as well. The Tigers played three games in five days.
“Your margin for error is slim,” Martin said. “Especially when you don’t have a lot of rest time, you gotta give everything you got.”
This story was originally published February 22, 2022 at 8:13 PM.
