Tigers vanquish Volunteers in SEC quarterfinals, 79-71

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Nick Honor just takes what the defense gives him. Sometimes, it's a clear path to the basket and a looping layup. Sometimes, it’s nothing. And sometimes it’s a go-ahead 3-pointer from the halfcourt logo.

The latter was the case in No. 4 seed Mizzou’s game against No. 5 seed Tennessee in Friday’s quarterfinal matchup in the SEC Tournament. With the score tied at 69-69 and just under two minutes remaining in the second half, senior forward Kobe Brown set a screen for Honor, who was high above the left wing, guarded by Tennessee sophomore guard Jahmai Mashack. Honor took one dribble to his right and Mashack chose to go under Brown’s pick.

With no defenders nearby, the graduate senior point guard rose to take a 25-foot triple. The shot fell through the back of the rim, pushing the Tigers ahead by three. The team held on in the final 1:45, never trailing again and taking a 79-71 victory over the Volunteers.

“When he shot it, I knew it was going in,” said senior guard DeAndre Gholston, who watched the play unfold from the sideline. “(Senior guard) Tre Gomillion asked me 'Is it a bucket?' I said, 'Yeah,' before he even shot it.”

Head coach Dennis Gates said that Honor was the one who asked for the ball screen. Not everyone on the roster has the green light to take that shot from that distance. Honor does because it’s something he’s put the time in to perfect. At 5-foot-10, Honor needs a good bit of space to get shots off over taller defenders. He gets the most room when he's three or four feet above the arc.

Honor said he’s worked on that exact shot with associate head coach Charlton “C.Y.” Young and graduate assistant coach Phil Pressey. When he launched it against Tennessee on Friday, he said it was just like practice.

“If it feels good, it feels good,” Honor said. “Coach Gates says a lot that I don't shoot enough. So definitely the ones that feel good, I gotta take them. So it just felt good.”

It still took guts Honor to shoot without hesitation. He didn’t have a perfect game, missing two of his 3s — one from the same range as his go-ahead bucket — and also committed two turnovers.

But the Clemson transfer is in his fifth year of collegiate basketball — Friday was his 121st career game. He’s been through more battles than he can count and knows how to come out on the other side. Weathering his nerves comes second nature to him now. Huddling on the court with his teammates helps, too.

“It's kind of like no one's in that circle,” Honor said. “There's a lot of outside noise — even our fans are outside noise. So just being in those huddles with just the five of us, it can get somebody, you know, back to being positive and not worrying about a prior play. So they definitely help.”

Brown said that as the game went down to the wire, it felt like the team kept taking its intensity up a notch. Gates credited his team’s ability to “not blink” as the game stayed tight.

Immediately after Honor’s trey, Missouri senior guard D’Moi Hodge tipped the Volunteers’ inbounds pass from Tennessee senior guard Tyreke Key, causing it to go out of bounds. Though the call on the floor was originally that the ball went off of Hodge, the Cleveland State transfer said he didn’t know for sure and asked officials to review the play. With less than two minutes on the clock, the referees went to the monitor and reversed the call, seeing the ball go off Key’s hands in the replay.

After officials reviewed the play, the Tigers found Hodge on the left wing, who splashed another 3-pointer to make it a two-score game. Key made a layup at the other end, but Brown matched it with the next possession to stay in front, 77-71.

The Volunteers (23-10, 11-7 SEC) couldn’t get either of their last two shots to drop, suffering the elimination loss. With the win, Missouri advances to the semifinal round of the conference tournament for the first time since joining the SEC in 2012.

Honor finished the game with eight points, four assists, three rebounds and two steals. Gates is glad he trusted his team captain.

“I am proud of our Mizzou fans for coming in and obviously making noise and giving us the energy that we needed to overcome a tough environment, but also a hard-fought game,” Gates said. “Sometimes you don't listen to your players. I listen to mine. We gave him a ball screen, and he was able to knock down a big-time three-point shot.”

"That same shot from Nick Honor is what I see every day," Gholston said.

The last time Mizzou went up against Tennessee, the team shot a season-high 53.8% from deep. The Volunteers are a better defense than that though — all of their other opponents combined have shot just 25.1% from the 3-point line this year. They looked like a stone wall in the first half of their rematch with the Tigers, holding them to 3-14 from outside.

To keep the offense from drowning, Missouri needed a scoring punch from the interior. Brown and Gholston provided a 1-2 combination, Brown feasting in the post and Gholston finding his touch from the mid-range. The pair went 6-7 on two-pointers, keeping the Tigers afloat and a step behind Tennessee going into the half, down 33-30.

“When we shoot too many 3s, it's kind of up to me and Kobe to kind of settle us down and get to the rim,” Gholston said. “So you know, I started off, I got a couple layups, couple of mid-rangers. Then Kobe finished off, like I said. So that helped us out and carried us.”

When the team returned for the second half, they found easier looks along the perimeter. MU went 7-12 on 3-pointers in the second half — Hodge was 3-5 by himself.

Hodge led the team with 26 points, followed by Brown with 24 and Gholston with 10. Brown said the ability to make adjustments to keep scoring against one of the country’s top defenses helped them come out on top.

“They've got a lot of freak athletes, a lot of muscle down low, a lot of skill guards who shoot the cover off the ball,” Brown said. “The biggest thing is they're a top-three defense or whatever. So we tried to not allow them to set up the defense and that was our big turnaround. We beat them down the floor and they can't set up their great defense.”

In Mizzou’s first game against Tennessee, the team was whistled for 24 fouls, 17 of them coming in the second half. The second game nearly played out in similar fashion, as the Tigers were called for five fouls by the first media timeout of the second half. It helped the Volunteers to go on a 5-0 run and take their biggest lead of the game at 38-30.

Gates said the timeout came at the right time, though.

“I needed that timeout,” Gates said. “I said, ‘Stop fouling. Guys, do you want them to beat us on the free-throw line or beat us playing halfcourt and tough basketball plays?’ We didn't want to just give them easy shots and baskets.”

The team was called for just four fouls the rest of the afternoon.

Tre Gomillion was ruled out minutes before Friday’s game tipped off, the team stating that his status is “day-to-day.” Gomillion previously missed seven games earlier this year with a groin injury.

Missouri (24-8, 11-7 SEC) plays in the SEC semifinals for the first time in program history, taking on No. 1 seed Alabama (27-5, 16-2) on Saturday at noon CT.

To make this deep of a run isn’t lost on any of the Tigers, especially Brown, who’s been with the team for four years.

“It's huge. It's huge,” Brown said. “We talk about it all the time. It's big for us. We just come in and do what we do. Just a bunch of guys that like to play together. We stay connected. It's showing off every day in practice and the game. I'm glad we made it here and hope we can finish this off.”

The Crimson Tide beat the Tigers in their first meeting in Columbia, Mo., on Jan. 21, 85-64. But Brown didn’t play in that game, the only one he’s missed all season, due to an ankle injury. He’s looking forward to getting a crack at what Gates refers to as “the No. 1 team in the country.”

“They're really good, they can shoot the ball, they're long, they're athletic. There's a reason they're the top team in the conference,” Brown said. “I was front row, front and center watching the game when they came to us. Our team played with them for a little bit and then, you know, what happened, happened. But it should be fun tomorrow, I'm looking forward to it.”

Gates said Friday will be a sleepless night for him as he prepares for tomorrow’s game.

“I'll watch probably every game they played since the last game we played them, dial into all the notes that I have,” Gates said.

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