Mizzou head coach Cuonzo Martin was hoping to see a little more scoring production from Xavier Pinson and the Tigers’ point guard responded. Pinson scored 27 points to lead 19th Missouri to a 73-64 victory over 6th ranked Tennessee on Saturday night. Dru Smith added 18 for the Tigers (10-2, 4-2 SEC) as the Tigers answered the Vols 20-point win in Columbia at the start of SEC play at the end of December.
Pinson scored 19 points in the first half with three 3-pointers give Mizzou a 40-34 halftime lead. Smith had 13 before the break. The Vols cut the lead to four in the second, but could never get closer as the Tigers used a 9-2 run eventually pushing their advantage to as many as 14 in the second half.
Yves Pons led Tennessee (10-3, 4-3) with 20 points.
