Junior forward Jordan Barnett is a man on a mission, and he continued to prove that Saturday afternoon.
Barnett had his second straight game of 23 points. Sophomore guard Terrence Phillips added 12 points and six rebounds and the Missouri Tigers cruised to a 72-52 victory over the Vanderbilt Commodores on Saturday afternoon at Mizzou Arena.
Mizzou (7-17, 2-10) picked up its second Southeastern Conference win of the season and largest conference win since Jan. 18, 2014 against Alabama, while Vanderbilt (12-13, 5-7) fell out of a tie for fifth in the SEC standings and saw its slim postseason tournament chances get even slimmer.
Missouri outrebounded Vanderbilt 43-25 and dominated the game’s physical battle, opening up opportunities from the outside while giving Vanderbilt little room to get its premier shooters open. The Tigers also had 16 offensive rebounds to the Commodores’ six and had 21 second-chance points, while Vanderbilt had just four.
Coach Kim Anderson said his team played its most complete and physical game of the season.
“It was a great performance by our guys,” Anderson said. “Going into the game, we really challenged our guys to go get offensive rebounds [because] we felt like we could get some second-chance points, and if you look at it, that was really the difference in the game.”
Vanderbilt, who entered the contest shooting a league-best 39 percent from behind the arc, had its worst 3-point shooting performance of the season, going just 6-28 from downtown. Additionally, Vanderbilt big man Luke Kornet, the NCAA career leader in 3-pointers made by a 7-footer, had a game he most likely will want to forget, going 4-14 from the field and 0-9 from 3-point range.
Vanderbilt coach Bryce Drew said his team got some open shots but just could not make them fall.
“I thought we had some really good looks, especially in the second half, but when you miss and you don’t get any easy baskets from offensive rebounds and points off turnovers, it’s hard to work your way back into the game,” Drew said.
Vanderbilt was also unable to find an answer to Barnett, who shot 6-10 from the field and added nine rebounds in 29 minutes of play. Barnett said he’s been enjoying his recent run of success.
“[The game] was really fun, not just from the standpoint of me scoring, but [also because] I know I played as hard as I can,” Barnett said. “It seems like we forced them to lay down, and it was fun to win like that.”
The win was also Anderson’s 300th of his career, a milestone he suggested was a little bittersweet due to the tumultuous last three years he’s had at Missouri.
“It took a long time to get [300 wins] from the time I got here to the time I got it, and that’s disappointing,” Anderson said. “But it felt good to get it.”
The Tigers will take on Alabama at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Mizzou Arena.
_Edited by Eli Lederman | elederman@themaneater.com_