Gholston's game-winner lifts Mizzou over No. 6 Tennessee, 86-85

KNOXVILLE, TN — Sean East II knew Santiago Vescovi was going to miss one of his free throws. He didn’t quite know what would happen next.

Mizzou sent Vescovi to the stripe with 4.2 seconds left in Saturday’s game against No. 6 Tennessee, the Tigers trailing 85-83. Four days earlier, the senior guard missed the first of a 1-and-1 trip to the foul line with his team up two and eight seconds left in the Volunteers’ road game against Vanderbilt. Commodores junior guard Tyrin Lawrence ended up sinking a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to give Vanderbilt a 66-65 win.

East expected Vescovi to do the same, hoping the Tigers could pull off the same result.

“I said 'Oh, you're gonna miss one,’” the senior point guard said. “‘You just missed last game.'

East was right, and Vescovi missed his first free throw. Unlike the Vanderbilt game, Tennessee was in the double bonus this time, meaning Vescovi had another foul shot coming up and a chance to push his team up by three. But Volunteers freshman forward Tobe Awaka committed a lane violation on the second free throw, giving Mizzou possession of the ball and enough time to attempt one last shot.

East inbounded the ball to senior guard DeAndre Gholston, who took three dribbles up the left side of the court and launched a 3-pointer from the second “S” of the midcourt “Tennessee” logo. The ball ripped through the net as the clock hit zero, handing Missouri an 86-85 win inside Thompson-Boling Arena.

“We just didn't flinch, we didn't blink,” Gholston said. “And the team kind of looked at me and kind of said, 'Just make something happen.' I give credit to Sean East the most, he looked at me when he stepped out of bounds and said, 'Dree, push it, get something good for us.' And I just believed in myself, my team believed in me, my coaching staff did and it worked for us.”

A shot that far from the basket going in at the buzzer may have been surprising, but it wasn’t surprising who took it. Gholston already hit one game-winner earlier this season in a 68-66 victory over UCF on Dec. 17. The Gary, Ind. native said during his freshman year of high school a senior teammate passed him the ball to shoot a buzzer-beater — he missed it and was down on himself for two weeks. He decided then that he needed to be fearless in those types of situations. He’s since hit three game-winners in his collegiate career.

Gholston and East said they got in trouble with the team’s assistant coaches before the game for practicing shots from halfcourt. The players said they usually take those just to have a little fun in practice or before a game. A few members on the coaching staff thought they were being too relaxed.

But Tigers head coach Dennis Gates, who doesn’t watch his team warm up, said he actually doesn’t mind them doing it.

“You have to let young people be young people because you never know,” Gates said. “They know something, right? And you want to put them in situations where they're successful but those guys doing that either relieves stress or they're really practicing a shot. Both of those situations that I just sort of explained can help us win games and obviously we saw one tonight.”

The victory counted as Mizzou’s fifth against a ranked opponent, and the first one they’ve defeated on the road. The 86 points the team scored was the most Tennessee (19-6, 8-4 SEC) has allowed in any game this season. Gholston finished the game with 18 points, two rebounds, two assists and two steals.

East said there were a lot of nerves as the game went down to the wire. He said he was the second option on the final play, hanging back if Gholston needed to pitch the ball for a better look. But Gates said he knew Gholston wasn’t going to pass it — they had all of their trust in him.

“The basketball gods blessed us,” Gates said. “Our guys kept believing. They kept believing in each other, they kept believing in the game plan and they did not wander far off of it."

East was the last player to leave the court after the Tigers finished warming up. He didn’t want to walk back through the tunnel to the locker room before making one more 3-pointer. East shot three more triples while a team manager rebounded for him. He made the third, then jogged off the floor, satisfied with his rhythm.

It was important for Missouri to see the ball go through the rim. They’d been shooting just 31.4% from distance while on the road in SEC games. And the Volunteers entered Saturday’s contest as the toughest team to shoot against in the country, holding opponents to 28.2% from beyond the arc.

But the Tigers gave the hosts all they could handle on Saturday, shooting 14-26 from deep. It’s the highest percentage that the team’s shot against any team this year.

Senior forward Kobe Brown got the night started with a trey from the corner to get Missouri on the board. Senior guard D’Moi Hodge followed with three consecutive triples, keeping MU within range, down 13-12.

East came off the bench for the first time with 13:45 left in the first half. With nine minutes remaining in the period, he scored eight consecutive points for Mizzou, six of them coming off 3s.

“They were kind of helping off their man,” East said. “And so we were just getting off of it and we were making shots a little bit. And it was just the game plan to spread them out and attack downhill and see what they give us.”

The visitors went into halftime up 44-32. Brown sank a 3-pointer at the 17:33 mark of the second half to give the team its biggest lead of the night at 49-32 — it was also the Volunteers’ biggest deficit this season.

Tennessee made adjustments, though. After Brown, Hodge and East combined to hit six treys in the first half, they hit just three in the second. Officials also seemed to get tighter with the whistle, calling Mizzou for 17 fouls in the second half after giving out just seven in the first. The choppier pace played into the hosts’ favor and the Volunteers erased the 17-point lead in nine minutes.

But 3-pointers were what helped the team close out the game, Gholston hitting one to push Mizzou within one at 81-80 with 2:02 remaining, and another at the buzzer to clinch the win. Brown led the Tigers with 21 points, followed by Gholston with 18, East with 17 and Hodge with 14.

“I thought it was outstanding,” Gates said. “Those guys were able to click on cylinders. They were defending, they were able to make shots, they were able to get their teammates involved. I thought the spacing was excellent. The second half, I thought Tennessee did a great job of focusing in on those guys, but then other guys stepped up.”

A few Tigers ran into foul trouble as officials started using their whistles more often in the second half. Both Hodge and junior forward Mohamed Diarra fouled out of the game and Brown came close with four.

Short on depth, Gates turned to walk-on junior forward Mabor Majak with 5:17 left in Tuesday’s game. Majak stayed on the floor for 4:02, finished with a plus/minus of positive-3 and made one of the most pivotal plays of the night.

With the hosts up 76-74, Volunteers sophomore point guard Zakai Zeigler drove to the rim with a chance to make it a two-possession game. Majak swatted Zeigler’s layup, collected the miss and was fouled by Tobe Awaka, sending him the free throw line with Mizzou in the bonus. Majak went 1-2 at the stripe to cut the deficit to one.

“Mabor Majak won us the ball game,” Gates said. “Mabor Majak put us in a position for Dree to hit the shot. There is no doubt in my mind about that and he was prepared. The four minutes that he played was more impactful than any — if you go back and watch, he was able to do a lot of great things.”

Tre Gomillion looked like he’s mostly recovered from a groin injury that’s sidelined him for the past three weeks. The senior guard was dressed out in his warm-up gear, went through movement drills with Director of Athletic Performance Sean Conaty before tip-off and was dunking in layup lines with the team. But Gates elected to stay cautious with Gomillion, holding him out of the last round of warmups and the game against Tennessee.

Mizzou had two other inactives: junior forward Ronnie DeGray III, who was seen on the bench in street clothes with a brace on his left knee, and senior guard Isiaih Mosley, who did not make the trip to Knoxville. A team official said Mosley was dealing with a “private, personal matter, nothing disciplinary.”

The Tigers (14-2, 7-5 SEC) close out their two-game road trip by taking on Auburn (17-8, 7-5) on Tuesday at 6 p.m. CT.

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