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MISSOURI 75, TENNESSEE 64TENNESSEE (12-13)Punter Jr. 5-13 9-13 21, Moore 3-7 0-3 6, Alexander 2-3 2-2 6, Phillips 4-7 0-0 10, Baulkman 6-13 1-2 17, Kasongo 0-1 0-0 0, Hubbs III 1-3 0-1 2, Schofield 0-3 0-0 0, Mostella 0-4 2-3 2, Reese 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 21-55 14-24 64.MISSOURI (9-16)Phillips 2-5 1-2 5, Wright 3-7 5-6 13, Clark 0-1 4-4 4, Puryear 6-8 3-4 17, Rosburg 8-9 5-7 21, Isabell 1-5 3-4 5, Walton 1-2 1-3 3, Gant 2-3 0-0 5, Woods 0-0 0-0 0, VanLeer 1-4 0-0 2. Totals 24-44 22-30 75.Halftime—Missouri 38-27. 3-Point Goals—Tennessee 8-27 (Baulkman 4-8, Phillips 2-4, Punter Jr. 2-8, Moore 0-1, Hubbs III 0-1, Schofield 0-2, Mostella 0-3), Missouri 5-16 (Puryear 2-3, Wright 2-5, Gant 1-1, Phillips 0-2, Isabell 0-2, VanLeer 0-3). Fouled Out—Phillips. Rebounds—Tennessee 26 (Alexander 7), Missouri 41 (Phillips 7). Assists—Tennessee 8 (Punter Jr. 3), Missouri 12 (Phillips 5). Total Fouls—Tennessee 21, Missouri 22. A—10,536.
Tennessee’s men’s basketball team remains the broken record its coach said it was five days ago.
For every step forward, the Volunteers take two steps back.
The biggest backward lunge of their first season under coach Rick Barnes came Saturday afternoon, when Tennessee played poorly and trailed for all but one minute and 17 seconds of a 75-64 loss at Missouri, the Southeastern Conference’s worst team.
The Tigers (9-16, 2-10) snapped a nine-game losing streak dating back to a 76-61 defeat of Auburn on Jan. 9. The Vols (12-13, 5-7) dropped to 1-11 away from Thompson-Boling Arena this season.
“I told the team we can talk about the what-ifs all we want, and the fact is we are where we are right now,” Barnes told the Vol Network radio broadcast after the game. “Missouri probably looked at us, what with one road win, and (started) thinking, ‘This is one we can get.’ When you’ve gone as long as they have without a win, they’re thinking, ‘We’ve got to get this one.’
“They came out at the start of the game like they knew they had to get it, and I just didn’t think again we responded from the beginning the way we have to.”
Missouri played with greater energy and built a double-digit first-half lead, and Tennessee was fighting an uphill battle the rest of the way.
Kevin Punter Jr. (21 points) and Devon Baulkman (17 points) scored 27 of Tennessee’s 37 points in the second half, and freshman Shembari Phillips (10) was the only other Vol who finished in double figures.
Ryan Rosburg led Missouri with 21 points.
The Vols again started slowly and trailed by a dozen points midway through the first half as Missouri, the lowest-scoring team in the league, began 8-of-11 from the field. The Tigers led by 11 by halftime despite enduring a five-minute, 39-second scoring drought and making just two field goals in the final 11 minutes of the first half.
“I’m just really disappointed again,” Barnes said, “in the way that, to me, it’s more our body language of the way we come out without the fight you’ve got to have and the competitive fire.”
After the break, Tennessee twice pulled to within six only to let Missouri answer and maintain a comfortable lead.
The closest the Vols got was 68-64 on Baulkman’s transition layup with 1:25 to go, but Terrence Phillips, Missouri’s 5-foot-11 point guard, rebounded his own miss on the ensuing possession to help the Tigers close out the win.
Tennessee’s rally attempt wasn’t helped by missed free throws and two turnovers on off-the-ball offensive fouls.
“You have to give Missouri credit,” Barnes said. “They played like they wanted to win the game, and we come in hoping like we’re wanting to win. You can’t win games when you’re hoping. I said to them coming down the stretch, the team that’s going to be the most aggressive and come up with the 50-50 balls is going to win the game, and I was right, because (Missouri) did.”
Missouri shot 54 percent and finished with big advantages in rebounding (41-26) and points in the paint (30-18) to offset 17 turnovers, which Tennessee turned into only 13 points.
“That’s just got a lot to do with effort and bringing energy and wanting to rebound the ball,” Baulkman told the Vol Network.
The Vols shot 8-of-27 from 3-point range and missed 10 free throws. Punter missed four after missing just 10 in Tennessee’s first 11 SEC games. Armani Moore missed three and scored six points.
Robert Hubbs III, Detrick Mostella and Admiral Schofield combined for four points on 1-of-10 shooting for Tennessee, which returns to action Thursday at No. 22 Kentucky (19-6, 9-3). The Vols beat the Wildcats – who routed South Carolina (21-14, 8-4) on Saturday – 84-77 on Feb. 2 in Knoxville.
“They’re not going to feel sorry for us, I can assure you of that,” Barnes said. “We’re going to have to decide what kind of team we want to be. We keep talking about it. We’ve played 25 games now, and if you ask me what we’re going to get, the answer would be, ‘I don’t know.’
“I wish I did. I wish I could tell everybody what we’re going to get, but I don’t have a clue.”
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.