Caleb Grill sparks Mizzou basketball blowout vs. South Carolina. The Tigers scored 101
Caleb Grill had a scoreless second half against Arkansas on Saturday. He went cold from long range (2-for-12 from 3) as the Missouri Tigers were upset in Fayetteville.
Tuesday night? Grill ignited for 22 points to lead a scorching Tigers team to a 101-71 rout over South Carolina. Turns out, they just needed a trip back home.
“We just really wanted to get back to who we were,” Grill said on the SEC Network postgame. “That’s what we did.”
Grill, remaining as head coach Dennis Gates’ valuable bench piece, recaptured his footing to go 9-of-11 from the field, 4-of-6 from 3-point range on Tuesday. The Wichita native remains one of the top 3-point shooters in the country, with a 43.3% mark going into the South Carolina game.
“I just want to come in with the impact of bringing energy off the bench,” Grill said. “I think that’s more important than anything. We come off the bench, we have to provide the spark. There’s multiple ways to do that: by rebounding, protecting the lane, deflecting passes, getting steals, doing things like that. I really want to do things that impact our team.”
While Grill was hot, the No. 14 Tigers followed suit ... 63.5% shooting (40-of-63) while going 57.9% (11-of-19) from deep. Mizzou (21-7, 10-5 SEC) has scored 100 points in back-to-back home games.
Naturally, the 100th point came in style. South Carolina’s Arden Conyers fouled with 39 seconds left to send Jeremy Sanchez to the line, hoping to score his first points as a Tiger. The free-throw attempt was unsuccessful, and the Gamecocks’ Austin Herro grabbed the rebound, but Aidan Shaw stole the ball and drove to the basket for a dunk.
Anthony Robinson followed Grill with 14 points, while leading all players with eight assists. Tony Perkins and Mark Mitchell each had 13 points, while Tamar Bates scored 11.
Grill also had five rebounds and four steals against South Carolina (11-17, 1-14).
“It was just a complete team effort,” Grill said. “I think that’s the most difficult to beat. I had 22, but I couldn’t do it without (Robinson)’s eight assists, he added 14 points to that.
“When we’re clicking like that … it makes us really tough to beat.”
The next game on the Tigers’ schedule includes the calendar flipping to the month basketball fans dream of year-round: March.
The Tigers have two more games on the road before a senior day affair on March 8 against No. 17 Kentucky.
Ahead of that, Missouri has already compiled an impressive resume for March Madness, with wins over teams ranked No. 1 (Kansas), No. 3 (Florida) and, most recently, No. 4 (Alabama) at the time of those games. Missouri dropped 110 points in that win over Alabama.
Can the Tigers ask for more?
According to Grill: Yes, they definitely can.
“I don’t think we’ve played our best game yet,” Grill said. “I don’t think we’ve found our best rhythm yet and I think we’ll find that stretch coming forward. Each game we get a little better. … We got back to who we were tonight, and we just have to keep stacking games like that.”
The Tigers next head to Nashville on Saturday for a matchup against Vanderbilt. Tipoff is set for 5 p.m. Central on the SEC Network.
This story was originally published February 25, 2025 at 10:56 PM.
