Dennis Gates has this regret from Missouri Tigers’ basketball loss at Vanderbilt
“Memorial Magic” got the better of another top-15 team in the country, as Vanderbilt bested No. 14 Mizzou 97-93 in overtime Saturday at Memorial Gymnasium in Nashville.
The Tigers led 81-78 with nine seconds left and had controlled much of the game, but they couldn’t put the frisky Commodores away.
Mizzou elected not to foul on Vanderbilt’s last possession and allowed it to play out, leading to a Tyler Nickel 3-pointer that tied the score 81-81.
The Commodores shot 4-for-5 from the field in overtime.
“I should have used the timeout to organize my team a lot better than I did, and that’s on me,” Mizzou coach Dennis Gates said. “At the end of the day, strategy is strategy, but I need to use a timeout to get our team set, and I just assumed that they would do what I needed them to do.”
Vanderbilt’s win adds another pelt in the team’s stretch of dominant home-court performances this season. A 76-75 win over then-No. 6 Tennessee on Jan. 18 and 74-69 victory over then-No. 9 Kentucky on Jan. 25 were just a couple of notable performances the Commodores have put together at Memorial Gymnasium.
Last time the Tigers were on the road, graduate guard Caleb Grill struggled in the second half of a 92-85 loss to Arkansas, scoring zero points after the break. Against the Commodores, Grill answered the call.
Grill made his first four shots of Saturday’s game, including three 3-pointers with one of them coming from the Vanderbilt logo. The graduate guard had 16 first-half points and added eight more in the second half and four in overtime. Grill finished with 28 points and three made 3-pointers.
Mizzou’s Anthony Robinson II and Mark Mitchell came up big for the Tigers and were dominant in the second half.
Robinson made clutch play after clutch play, including two step-back 3-pointers late in the second half. The sophomore guard was everywhere offensively and defensively for Mizzou, scoring 16 points, dishing out five assists and snagging three steals. Robinson had all three of his steals and 14 points in the second half and overtime.
“He’s doing a great job offensively and defensively,” Gates said. “He got in the early foul trouble, but he was able to stay out of that while still playing intense, and I think he did a great job just staying in front of the ball, not catching those sneaky fouls 50 feet away from the basket.”
Mitchell kept Mizzou in the game in the second half, scoring 20 points and grabbing seven rebounds. He scored 15 of his points across the second half and overtime, and he was Missouri’s leading scorer in the second period.
With the loss, Missouri no longer controls its own destiny to be a top-4 seed in the SEC Tournament and earn the coveted double-bye that comes with it.
Gates had high praise for the competitive nature of the conference as the SEC Tournament approaches.
“This is the best conference ever assembled at this moment,” Gates said. “And when you look at the depth of our conference, you look at the coaches, the coaching styles, you look at our nonconference record — I just hope we get 14 teams into the NCAA (Tournament), because their conference record is not indicative of who they are as a team.”
Mizzou will be back on the road at 7 p.m. Wednesday in Norman, Oklahoma, against the Sooners. The game will be streamed on the SEC Network.