It took Tennessee basketball nearly five minutes to score against Missouri on Tuesday night as the Vols’ offense played about as poorly as possible for the game’s first 25 minutes.
Missouri opened up a seven-point lead during that stretch and the Vols looked vulnerable to lose as double-digit favorites as the Tigers looked for their first SEC win of the season.
But then Tennessee found its rhythm and used a massive run to lead by as many as 13 points before earning a 72-67 win when Anthony Robinson II hit a triple as the clock expired.
Dalton Knecht missed his first eight shots from the field before catching fire in the second half. He hit six of his final eight shots and went for 15 points in the second half as the Vols earned the comeback win.
“He can get going,” Rick Barnes said postgame. “I mean, that’s what he does.”
While Knecht was great in the second half, Jonas Aidoo and Tobe Awaka were the two players that kept Tennessee alive in the first half and came up big in the second half.
Aidoo totaled 14 points on six-of-nine shooting from the field while Awaka totaled a career-high 18 points on six-of-seven shooting to go along with 10 rebounds.
“I told the team at halftime, I went down by the numbers and I said, how about letting these guys (Awaka and Jonas Aidoo) play a little bit? You know, let’s get them involved,” Barnes said. “And they did. And again, I mean, tonight to combine, he and Jonas must have shot 80, 85% and did a good job … I thought both of those guys were playing with force.”
Following the game, RTI’s Ric Butler and Ryan Schumpert discussed the tale of two halves and Tennessee finding a way to pull out the victory. Check it out here.
