NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Vanderbilt could never get its offense going Wednesday at Memorial Gymnasium and Missouri took advantage in a 61-52 win.
The Commodores (9-19, 1-14 SEC) dropped their sixth straight as they shot 35.6 percent from the floor and 19 percent from distance. They also missed 13 free throws, had only six assists and just four points off the bench.
Scotty Pippen Jr. scored 19 while Saben Lee added 14 for Vandy which heads to Ole Miss (13-15, 4-11 SEC) at noon Saturday.
Vanderbilt started Wednesday night 0-for-8 from distance and went nearly six minutes without a made field goal. Still, a 3 from Lee at the 11:05 mark made it a 9-9 ballgame.
Trailing 16-14 with less than seven minutes to play in the first half, Vanderbilt exploded for a 13-2 run to get up 27-18. Pippen had eight points during that stretch as the Dores began to find their rhythm offensively.
But that rhythm came to a screeching halt over the final four minutes in which Vandy failed to make a field goal. That resulted in just a 28-27 margin at halftime.
The Commodores shot 37 percent from the floor and 28 of their points came from they five starters.
Vanderbilt went ice cold to start the second half – it went more than 7 1/2 minutes without a field goal as Missouri built a lead as large as nine. That drought was broken by a Drew Weikert layup, but the Tigers got a Axel Okongo 3 moments later to build a 47-37 lead.
The Commodores found it hard to get a defensive stop from that point. Three times in the waning minutes Vandy was able to get within five – each time Missouri answered.
Xavier Pinson’s layup with 3:20 left came immediately following an Ejike Obinna dunk made it 55-48 and proved to be too big of a margin for Vanderbilt to overcome.
Pinson led the Tigers with 17 while Reed Nikko with 14.
