Columbia, Mo. – The No. 20 Missouri men’s basketball team emerged victorious in a tight affair with Vanderbilt Saturday, securing an 85-82 win in front of a sold-out crowd at Mizzou Arena. With the victory, the Tigers improve to 13-2 and 2-1 in SEC play, while the Commodores drop to 8-7 and 1-1 against conference foes.
Four Tigers scored more than 15 points in the winning effort, led by 18 from both Kobe Brown and DeAndre Gholston and 16 from Noah Carter. The trio was especially strong in the second half when they tallied 40 of their combined 52 points, while Brown also led MU with a game-high eight rebounds.
D’Moi Hodge added 17 points on the day – connecting on four 3-pointers. Mizzou point guards Sean East II and Nick Honor combined for 10 assists with just one turnover as East collected a season-best seven helpers.
The Commodores opened the game strong and earned their largest lead of the game after a 10-2 start. The Tigers, however, quickly answered back behind the shooting from Hodge. The graduate student scored nine points in just 78 seconds – connecting on two triples sandwiched around an and-1 – as the Tigers pulled to within a point, 21-20. The Tigers continued the run and an Aidan Shaw alley-oop put the hosts in front by six, 31-25, only for a strong finish by Vanderbilt send the teams into the locker room squared at 34.
The Tigers quickly jumped in front in the second half and a dunk from Brown put Mizzou in front by double digits, 53-42, with 12:57 remaining. However, Vanderbilt responded down nine points with a 13-1 spurt of its own to grab a 59-56 edge and set up a back-and-forth finish.
The teams traded baskets the next five minutes as the game would be tied on six occasions with neither school leading by more than four. The Tigers, however, were finally able to take advantage by drawing fouls and finishing at the charity stripe, connecting on five straight from the line to turn a 73-73 contest into a 78-73 lead. Mizzou then added seven more free throws (on eight attempts) in the final 30 seconds to secure the victory.
The Tigers converted 42.1 percent of their field goals in the winning effort with a 10-of-26 performance from 3-point range. Mizzou also set season highs with 27 free-throws made and 31 attempted – making 87.1 percent from the charity stripe.
The Commodores, meanwhile, shot 48.5…
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