The Tigers couldn’t put Vanderbilt away.
Missouri led 77-71 with 1:33 left to play and had an opportunity to hit a dagger with 51 seconds left when Caleb Grill had an opportunity from 3 that ended in an Anthony Robinson offensive board.
But a turnover and a foul cut the Tiger advantage to two with 23 seconds left and the Commodores sank every 3 they took, including a final heave from the right wing from Tyler Nickel to send the game to overtime tied at 81.
In overtime, the Commodores couldn’t miss, leading to a 97-93 win that means Missouri will once again need help to reach a double-bye in the SEC Tournament after it had gained the power to control its own destiny just days before.
“We knew who was going to shoot the ball and I think we got a little bit disorganized,” Missouri coach Dennis Gates said. “I’ve gotta put our guys in a better spot.”
“I should have used a timeout to organize my team a lot better than I did,” Gates added. “And that’s on me.”
Instead of fouling or calling timeout, Gates let the final seconds play out as A.J. Hoggard dribbled into the paint and pulled Tigers in with him to open up Nickel for the final attempt.
After starting the game just 2-of-19 from 3, the Commodores hit six of their final seven attempts, including five consecutive at the end of regulation.
“We played good enough to win the game, we just didn’t come out down the stretch executing,” Gates said. “It’s the madness of March, that’s all it is.”
Vanderbilt jumped ahead with a Chris Manon layup to start overtime - as the Cornell transfer led the Commodores with a 23-point, 11-rebound day - then never trailed in the extra five minutes.
Vanderbilt shot 23-of-33 (69.7 percent) from the field and 7-of-13 (53.8 percent) from 3 in the second half and overtime, helping to overcome a 38-29 lead Missouri took into halftime.
Neither team started hot, as they combined to shoot just 1-of-10 to open the game before a Tamar Bates 3 put Missouri up 5-4 with 15:54 left in the first half for the Tigers’ first basket.
Caleb Grill came off the bench soon after and was immediately on fire, hitting three 3s and a layup to go on an 11-1 run all on his own, putting the Tigers in front 16-7.
Missouri extended to a nine-point lead on a Mark Mitchell layup, but Vanderbilt stormed back to go up 19-18 with a 10-0 run. After trading the lead four times and tying at 24, the Tigers took a 14-5 lead into halftime to create the nine-point advantage at the break.
Missouri never got to a double-digit lead, but did hold the advantage for 32:05 of the game as it lost after taking a lead into halftime for the first time this season.
“No one is going to give us that,” Gates said. “... Nothing is gonna be easy in this entire month.”
Grill ended with a game-high 28 points, but missed his final eight deep attempts after hitting his first three. Mitchell added 20 points, helped by a 12-of-15 day at the free-throw line, to go with seven rebounds.
Bates put up 16 points, mostly coming in a short stretch just before halftime and Robinson scored 16 points, almost all in the final 15 minutes, while dishing out five assists and poking away three steals. All but one assist and all of Robinson’s steals came after halftime.
The Tigers were out-rebounded 39-28, including allowing Vanderbilt to grab 18 offensive rebounds that turned into just 12 second-chance points. Missouri scored nine second-chance points on 12 offensive boards.
“I don’t want to say self inflictions on this game because we had a team protect home court,” Gates said. “... They did it to us. Whatever turnovers we had, whatever loose balls they got, whatever rebounds they got, they earned every bit of it. It was a hard-fought game and both teams did a great job.”
But as has been the case in multiple games recently, the Tigers could not stop anything in the paint. Vanderbilt, which doesn’t have a regular player taller than 6-foot-7, scored 48 points in the interior and was able to get anything it wanted down low.
The Commodores also won fast-break points 14-5, had four blocks to Missouri’s one and took 11 more shots from the field than the Tigers did.
Missouri shot 28-of-57 (49.1 percent) from the field, 9-of-22 (40.9 percent) from 3 and 28-of-35 (80 percent) at the free-throw line.
Missouri (21-8, 10-6 SEC) enters the final week of the regular season with a road matchup at Oklahoma at 7 p.m. Wednesday. The Tigers will then finish the regular season hosting Kentucky at 11 a.m. Saturday.
“We’ve got to debrief from this game and make sure that we put ourselves in a great situation for our next opponent,” Gates said. “... We’ll get back to what we need to do and obviously look at what we need to do better.”
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