Missouri Tigers fall at No. 4 Tennessee. It was a battle down to the final seconds
It started as a rock fight. Somewhere along the way, a pretty good basketball game broke out, too.
The Missouri Tigers battled with the No. 4 Tennessee Volunteers at Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center in Knoxville, Tennessee, ultimately falling 85-81.
“Hats off to Tennessee. They did a great job,” Missouri coach Dennis Gates said in his postgame radio interview. “Tremendous, tremendous team.”
The game started as a defensive slugfest, then picked up in the latter stages of the first half. At one point, the No. 15 Tigers led by 11 and appeared to be taking control before Tennessee responded with a counterpunch.
Standouts for MU included Tony Perkins, who hit his first three 3s, then was fouled on a 3-pointer. He made 2 of 3 at the line to give the Tigers their biggest lead of the day at 39-28. He finished with 16 points, five rebounds and five assists.
“Great stat line,” Gates said in his postgame news conference. “I thought he did some wonderful things.”
KC native Tamar Bates struggled through a 6-for-14 shooting performance but still scored 22 points. After going scoreless in the first half, Bates opened the second half with two early 3s. He made two more 3s in the last five minutes with Mizzou trying to stage a comeback.
Sharpshooter and Wichita native Caleb Grill chipped in 11 points with two made 3s. Bates, Grill and Perkins were the only MU players in double figures. Missouri went 13 deep, going deep into the bench on a night Anthony Robinson played only six minutes because of foul trouble.
The Volunteers threatened to run away late, pushing their lead out to 14 with 4:30 to play. But Missouri did not go quietly, scoring nine straight to cut the deficit to 75-70.
Bates scored nine points in the final two minutes, keeping the margin within two possessions after each trip down the floor. The Tigers used a home-run inbounds play to set up a Jacob Crews 3 with 21 seconds left, trimming the margin to four. Crews attempted another 3 with about 10 seconds left that would’ve pulled MU within two, but the shot hit off the rim.
“I thought we did a good job of defending them,” Gates said, “but when you go 10-of-15 from 3, they were hot. They shot a high percentage in the second half. ... Tough to recover from that.”
Missed opportunities hurt the Tigers
The Tigers led by double-digits early in the second half but were unable to make the type of winning plays needed to hold off the Volunteers (19-4, 6-4 SEC).
Tennessee answered Missouri’s largest lead of 11 with an 18-5 run, while Missouri split two different trips to the line during that stretch.
From the time the Tigers led by 11 — early in the second half — to when they trailed by 11 with 5:56 to play, they missed five foul shots, including the front-end of a one-and-one. The Tigers, in total, missed 10 free throws, all in the second half. They missed the front end of a one-and-one twice.
Offense was also a struggle for the Tigers, who shot 41.7% for the game. Until a late surge after the under-four media timeout, the Tigers were shooting just 7-for-18 (38.9%) in the second period.
“We had a chance, but we made mistakes,” Gates said. “Not turnovers, but we made some mistakes that only we know what took place. ... We’ve just got to do a better job of being able to execute the game plan.”
Missouri’s defense came out strong
When you don’t score for the first five minutes of a basketball game, you can be in some trouble. But the Tigers locked down defensively, smothering the Vols until the visitors’ offense was ready to get rolling.
As the clock passed the 16-minute mark in the first half, Tennessee had just three points, shooting 1-for-4 from the field with three turnovers.
The Tigers, meanwhile, started the game 0-for-5 (0-for-3 from 3) with a turnover before Perkins hit a 3-pointer at the 14:46 mark. That cut the deficit to 5-3.
Missouri faced another difficulty early, as Robinson picked up two fouls before the 14-minute mark in the first half. But the basket, finally, was about to open.
Grill dunked to tie the score. Then Perkins hit another 3, and the Tigers led 8-5 with Tennessee shooting 2-for-8 (25%) with five turnovers.
On back-to-back possessions later in the half, the Tigers recorded steals without even allowing the Vols to get to center court. Missouri led by as many as nine (30-21) in the first half. Tennessee shot 12-for-25 in the period but was forced into eight turnovers.
“I thought our guys came out in the first half, executed the game plan,” Gates said. “We minimized our mistakes on the road.”
It’s been a historic year for Missouri
The Missouri Tigers had already set several program bests — with other memorable marks — heading into this top-15 showdown.
Start with a ranked win over Kansas, when the Tigers unseated the No. 1 team in the country. Then, after losing their first SEC game to No. 2 Auburn, the Tigers reeled off four straight, including a win at No. 5 Florida.
Missouri entered Wednesday’s game fresh off back-to-back ranked wins, including a record-setting 27-point road win over No. 14 Mississippi State.
Keep in mind: This was a Missouri team that went winless in SEC play last year. This year’s Tigers team, now 17-5 (6-3 SEC), has already more-than-doubled its win total from last season (8-24, 0-18).
“When you look at our roster, our roster is different,” Gates said. “We’re going to continue to stay committed to our values and things that we believe in, but the players that have returned, they’ve gotten better through player development. Also, the recruiting class that we had, you know, top-3 recruiting class in high school. And then obviously we did a good job in the portal.”
Even in defeat, this has been an impressive year for Gates and company.
Up next: What else? Another top-15 matchup. The Tigers will host No. 10 Texas A&M on Saturday, Feb. 8, at Mizzou Arena. Tipoff is set for 2:30 p.m. on the SEC Network.
This story was originally published February 5, 2025 at 8:46 PM.
