Anchor Down! Vanderbilt finds too little, too late and fall to the Mizzou Tigers – Rock M Nation

Down to the buzzer, the Tigers pull off a much needed top-20 win
With 16 minutes to go in the second half, Trent Pierce drilled a three-pointer that had Mizzou Arena on its feet Wednesday night. It extended a Tiger lead to 11 points and they never looked back, minus a rocky final two minutes, of course. The team pushed an 81-80 win and sent the top-20 Commodores packing.
On the next possession, Jayden Stone too connected from beyond the arc, seemingly shattering the sound barrier in the building. That was until the sweet sounds of Mr. Brightside broke out over the loudspeakers.
Missouri was rolling and everyone was clicking. Mark Mitchell connected from three and Trent Burns played productive minutes, adding points next to his name on the scoresheet. With help all across the board, the Tigers defeated its second ranked opponent this season.
Missouri remains undefeated all-time at Mizzou Arena against the ’Dores with a 9-0 advantage. Vanderbilt Head Coach Mark Byington was quick to open his press conference saying that it’s tough to win in this building when you play out of character.
In the final two minutes of play, the Commodores seemed to figure it out.
“We finally scored,” said Byington.
Shots were falling for the ‘Dores and Mizzou couldn’t keep two hands on the basketball. A 21-point lead soon dwindled down to just one and the anxiety was palpable.
“I thought our pace was better on offense, but the steals and turnovers obviously helped out to be able to make a comeback,” said Byington.
That 80s magic of Throwback Night was real though and with seven seconds Mitchell inbounded the ball to T.O. Barrett, who put the game away with a pair of free throws. A final Vanderbilt Hail Mary clanged off the rim and a breath of relief was felt around the arena.
“Yes, we were up 20,” Mizzou Head Coach Dennis Gates said. “Who in here did not watch the Oklahoma-Vanderbilt game? We knew they would make a run, and our guys, they may have bent a little bit, but we did not break. That’s a sign of a great team.”
Led by Jayden Stone, the Tigers looked complete offensively for the other 30 minutes (the first eight or so minutes weren’t great, either). Once the cold shooting warmed up, however, the team was able to pull away with help from perimeter shooting.
By the conclusion of the game, Stone set a season-high four triples.
Entering Wednesday, Vanderbilt boasted the conference’s best mark for three-point defense, limiting its opponents to just a 29.5% success rate. The Tigers sunk its claws in and tore that defense apart, shooting 50%. For Mizzou, it’s the best the team has shot from beyond the arc since early December.
Stone also explored the paint, and in the first half, the guard gave the Tigers its first lead of the day after a three-point play. He ended the night with 19 points.
Overall, five Tigers scored in double digits.
The achievement was aided by Mizzou’s aggressiveness in the paint. Reaching the line for 32 attempts, the team knocked down 25 of them, which was an 11-point advantage over Vanderbilt. The Dores also committed two flagrant fouls (editor’s note: from the SAME player).
The home team also forced 11 turnovers and collected 18 points off of them.
Barrett found himself at the charity stripe most frequently with eight points stemming from the foul line. He collected 16 points in effort to continue his recent offensive streak and has now scored at least 10 points in eight of his last ten games.
Also having a night to remember was Trent Pierce. A seemingly quiet 16 points, the junior and team captain kept the team moving in the final stages. It was a much-needed response after a lackluster showing against the Texas Longhorns days earlier.
While he didn’t end up in the double digit figures alongside his teammates, Trent Burns had a season-high 18 minutes on the court.
“We need somebody to step up, especially at the five spot, and tonight, it was Trent Burns,” said Gates. “His teammates did a great job of pushing him through and demanding of him as well and that was the response that we needed.”
As March looms closer, the Tigers’ chances still hang in the balance of its five remaining games. Tonight, and probably the rest of the month, the only song playing in my head will be “Girl in the Bubble” from Wicked as I watch Mizzou take hold of the opportunity. Joe Lunardi…your thoughts on the cardiac affair?
Gates also ended with a thought-provoking answer on the matter.
“It’s a ranked opponent coming into our home. We were able to beat a great team,” said Gates. “Vanderbilt did a tremendous job in the non conference by representing our conference as the elite team. I’ll remind you they were the elite team in our conference when it came to NET, and they are still a team with a great resume, great matrix and things like that. For Selection Sunday, our job is to get these types of wins. I know everyone has had questions about scheduling. Well, we have the second toughest schedule in the last six in the country, and I knew that the schedule would come back to us, and these opportunities no different than last. Our guys wanted that win against Texas, but we fell short. Texas scored 25 points in the last four seconds of the shot clock for the entire game. They were on fire. They did a great job. It didn’t break our guys and nor did I over-respond and punish our guys. I looked at the film no different than I’ll look at it tonight, making sure our guys are in the best scenarios and best situations, but we’ll continue to push our group forward. This win is a great win for our resume. It goes right there with the Florida win, Kentucky win, and there’s very few people that can say they beat Florida. So we’re one of those teams, and our guys have done a good job, and tonight, proud of them.”
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