NASHVILLE – Dru Smith made two free throws with 15.2 seconds left, while Missouri held Georgia 73-70 on Thursday night at Bridgestone Arena, advancing to the quarter-finals of the Southeast Conference men’s basketball tournament .
Seventh-placed Tigers (16-8) will face Arkansas, eighth and second-placed (21-5) on Friday night.
Missouri rose 62-50 against the Bulldogs (14-12), but almost lost the lead by failing to make a field goal after Jeremiah Tilmon’s tray with 6:24 remaining. The Tigers missed their last six shots, but hit all nine free throws in the last five minutes.
Xavier Pinson scored 17 points and Kobe Brown 16 for Missouri, while Tilmon finished with 10.
Georgia, who lost for the third game in a row, lost 69-67 with 19.8 seconds to go, when Toumani Camara went to the foul line and missed both free throws. Smith, from Missouri, hit his free throws, and Pinson added two more to the final margin.
Sahvir Wheeler led Georgia with 14 points, Camara finished with 13 and KD Johnson with 12.
Pinson hit the doorbell with a 3-point basket to reduce Missouri’s deficit to 33-32 after a first half, when the two teams experienced droughts of more than five minutes. Georgia led 33-27 after hitting six consecutive kicks before Pinson’s basket.
The young Bulldogs, the only SEC team that hasn’t lost a game because of COVID-19 or the weather this season, cost themselves in this match by hitting 10 out of 16 on free throws. They had just one more turnover than Missouri, but were outnumbered by 19-9 for those mistakes.
Florida 69, Vanderbilt 63: Tre Mann scored 22 points while fifth-placed Gators (14-8) held 12th-placed Vanderbilt, breaking a two-game skid as he entered the tournament and establishing the quarter-finals with fourth-placed Tennessee (17-7), which it will be the second game between the teams in six days.
Noah Locke scored 13 points for Florida, and Tyree Appleby added 12 from the bench.
Vanderbilt (9-16) lost to Florida for the third time this season and for the sixth consecutive time in this series.
Scotty Pippen Jr. led the Commodores with 23 points, hitting all 10 free throws. DJ Harvey and Trey Thomas had 12 points each.
The Commodores, who won just three league games in the regular season, had their chances of a second SEC victory in 24 hours. Pippen pulled Vanderbilt in 64-63 with a pair of free throws 1:40 from the end, but Mann made a jump with 53 seconds to go, and Thomas missed a 3 for Vandy with 31 seconds remaining while the Gators held on.
Florida looked ready to cross, with 34-22 at the break, after scoring the eight points of the first period.
Thomas scored 11-0 with three consecutive 3s for Vanderbilt, the latter giving the Commodores their first advantage since the opening minutes in 55-54 with 8:39 remaining.
Appleby put Florida ahead to take two free throws with 7:13 remaining at 58-57.
Mississippi State 74, Kentucky 73: Iverson Molinar scored eight of his 21 points in the final 3:07 to erase a five-point handicap, and Mississippi State resisted Kentucky.
The ninth Bulldogs had just 3 of 14 in the 3-point streak until Molinar hit behind the hoop in two consecutive possessions to retake the lead in 72-71 – after leading by 15 at the start of the semester. Molinar had a 3-point attempt to roll off the edge in his next possession, and Olivier Sarr gave Kentucky eighth placed a 73-72 lead in 1:18.
Molinar, an 81% free-throw shooter, made two with 7.1 seconds remaining to a one point lead. Davion Mintz dribbled the court and found a hot Dontaie Allen sniper on the wing, but the shot bounced off the edge.
Mississippi State (15-13) advances to face Alabama with the sixth position and the best classified. The Bulldogs missed both regular season games by eight and five points.
Kentucky (9-16), needing the SEC tournament title to make the NCAA bracket, was overtaken by 36-12 in the first half when the Bulldogs finished with a 29-15 rebound advantage.
Abdul Ado, a six-foot senior, scored 12 points in the first half for Mississippi State, and striker Tolu Smith scored nine with seven rebounds. Ado hit all six shots, while Bulldogs hit 57.6%, while Kentucky held 32.4%.
Allen, a freshman, led Kentucky’s recovery in the second half with 20 of his 23 points and five of his six of 3 points after the break.
Smith finished with 13 points and 10 rebounds, and Ado added 12 points and nine rebounds for the State of Mississippi. DJ Stewart had nine points, seven rebounds and 10 assists.
Mintz had 16 points and eight assists and Sarr added 14 points for Kentucky.
Ole Miss 76, South Carolina 59: Jarkel Joiner set the game record with 18 points as one of three double-digit players for sixth-grade rebels, who didn’t have to do much in the second half after starting it with a 15-point advantage over 11th place Gamecocks.
Romello White had 17 points, seven rebounds and three blocks for Ole Miss (16-10), and Devontae Shuler had 15 points with five assists and a pair of steals. Joiner hit all six free throws, part of a 15-by-19 display on the line for the rebels.
Jalyn McCreary scored 15 points and blocked three shots for South Carolina (6-15), who had 14 points from Wildens Leveque and 12 from AJ Lawson.