COLUMBIA, Mo. — The No. 20 Missouri Tigers avoided their first losing streak of the season Saturday, holding off Vanderbilt, 85-82, at a sold-out Mizzou Arena.
On a balanced scoring day for the Tigers, Kobe Brown bounced back from a rough outing in Wednesday’s loss at Arkansas to lead the Tigers with 18 points and eight rebounds, while DeAndre Gholston matched his 18 points and made the defensive save of the day.
With the Tigers up four with 4 seconds left, Gholston stole Vanderbilt’s inbounds pass, then sank two free throws to ice the victory.
The Tigers (13-2, 2-1 SEC) continued their home mastery over Vanderbilt (8-7, 1-1), improving to 7-0 all time against the Commodores in Columbia and 5-0 at Mizzou Arena in SEC play.
D’Moi Hodge added 17 points, while Noah Carter scored 16 for the Tigers.
With his team down three with 34 seconds left, Vandy’s Myles Stute, the SEC’s leading 3-point shooter, missed two free throws, followed by a Sean East free throw to push Mizzou ahead by four. Vandy’s Liam Robbins kept his team alive with a jumper, but Carter sank two more free throws with 17 seconds left to maintain a two-possession lead. With six seconds left, Robbins grabbed a missed Stute 3-pointer at the rim for the put-back. But East calmly hit his two free throws a second later, setting up Gholston’s gave-saving steal.
The Tigers shot 27 of 31 from the free-throw line.
Back home after Wednesday’s loss at No. 13 Arkansas, Missouri got off to a rare sluggish start, missing its first six shots while Vanderbilt grabbed an early 10-2 lead. The Tigers’ troubles on the glass were further exposed, especially with 7-foot center Robbins on the floor for the Commodores. By halftime, with the score even 34-34, Vandy held a 25-11 edge on the boards and scored 11 second-chance points thanks to eight offensive rebounds.
Just like Wednesday’s loss at Arkansas, Brown was limited with two early fouls, but unlike Wednesday, Hodge showed up on the offensive end with 12 first-half points. The Razorbacks held Hodge to a season-low six points and without a 3-pointer for the first time all season.
The Tigers took control with a 10-0 run early in the second half and created some distance from the Dores with back-to-back 3s from Carter and Nick Honor.
But Vandy answered with a 17-3 run, stalled briefly by a game-tying Brown 3.
The Tigers stayed on the attack inside to earn their visits to the foul line. With 7:07 left, Brown drew Vandy’s seventh foul of the half, drained his free throws then added two more baskets to put Mizzou back in front with his seven straight points.
