NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Sindarius Thornwell scored 18 points and tied his career-high with four 3-pointers as South Carolina beat Missouri 63-54 Wednesday night in the Southeastern Conference tournament.

The 11th-seeded Gamecocks (16-15) have won three of their last four, and this gives them their best season since winning 21 in 2008-09. They will play sixth-seeded Mississippi on Thursday night.

Michael Carrera added 12 points for South Carolina despite being limited to 22 minutes with four fouls.

Missouri (9-23) finishes the season having lost 16 of the Tigers’ final 18 games. The 14th-seeded Tigers sure made it interesting not letting South Carolina run away. They got within a possession seven times in the second half, the last at 52-50 when Montaque Gill-Caesar hit two free throws with 6:42 to go.

Carrera answered with a jumper to start an 11-1 spurt as South Carolina pulled away.

Gill-Caesar finished with a team-high 10 points.

Carrera’s lone 3-pointer was part of a strong offensive start that quickly separated the Gamecocks from Missouri. South Carolina made its first three attempts and eight of its initial 14, opportunities created by good energy and ball movement.

Missouri, meanwhile, began just 1 of 6 from the field and things didn’t get much better in a first half. Though the Tigers were slightly less error-prone than the Gamecocks (8-7), they missed passes near the basket and seemed out of sync for the most part.

South Carolina took advantage to build its biggest lead at 30-17 before Missouri regrouped for a 7-0 run over the final two minutes to trail by just 30-24 at the break. The Tigers’ task was containing Carrera and Duane Notice, whose 13 combined points symbolized the Gamecocks’ 45 percent shooting.

—

TIP-INS

Missouri: The Tigers finish with their fewest wins since 1966-67. … Missouri won the first three games against South Carolina and now has lost two straight, both this season. … The Tigers hit only one of their final six shots. … They outrebounded South Carolina 35-26.

South Carolina: The Gamecocks came in with six SEC wins, their most since 2010. … They now are 19-23 all-time in this tournament and won their opener for a second straight year. … The Gamecocks made Missouri’s mistakes hurt with a 20-4 scoring edge off turnovers. … Thornwell tied his season-high with six assists.

UP NEXT:

Missouri: Season finished.

South Carolina: Ole Miss on Thursday night.

— Associated Press —

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Keith Shamburger scored 21 points, tying his season high, and drained a 10-footer with 10.9 seconds remaining on senior night to lift Missouri over Auburn 63-61 on Tuesday.

The game-winning bucket capped a 9-0 run for the Tigers (9-21, 3-14 Southeastern Conference), who won for just the second time in 16 games. Freshmen Montaque Gill-Caesar and Namon Wright each added 10 points.

KT Harrell scored 24 points to lead Auburn (12-18, 4-13), but his 3-point attempt at the buzzer bounced harmlessly off the rim.

The Tigers played without Antoine Mason for a second straight game after the death of the guard’s father, former NBA forward Anthony Mason, on Saturday. Both teams observed a moment of silence before the game in Mason’s memory.

The Tigers have lost five consecutive games.

Shamburger actually missed another attempt with about 15 seconds to go, but Gill-Caesar poked the ball loose from Auburn’s Cinmeon Bowers before the senior received a second chance he wouldn’t miss.

A Los Angeles native, Shamburger was already playing with heightened emotions after being honored before the game along with fellow senior Keanau Post. The guard scored 11 points in the first 7:15 of the game to give Missouri a 15-9 lead, but wouldn’t score again for nearly 19 minutes.

The break provided an opening for Harrell, who scored 13 points in the final 13:03 of the first half to help Auburn knot the game at 30 at the break. Averaging 17.7 points per game, the senior started 1 of 6 from the field but finished 8 of 16.

His layup with 13:46 remaining gave Auburn a 42-40 lead, one it wouldn’t give up until a reverse layup by Wright tied the score at 61 with 76 seconds left, energizing the crowd of 6,619 and setting up the frenzied final minute.

TIP-INS

Auburn: The Tigers lost their previous four games by an average of 23.5 points, but never trailed by more than six Tuesday. . The team finished 21 of 51 (41.2 percent) overall.

Missouri: Shamburger and Post have only combined to play three seasons with the Tigers after transferring from other schools, but Shamburger has started every game and leads the team with 1,036 minutes played this season. . The team finished 24 of 54 (44.4 percent) from the field.

UP NEXT

Auburn wraps up its regular season at home against Georgia on Saturday.

Missouri closes its schedule on the road at Mississippi State on Saturday.

— Associated Press —

ATHENS, Ga. (AP) — J.J. Frazier isn’t ready to assume a lopsided win over Missouri means Georgia is headed to the NCAA tournament.

Nemanja Djurisic scored 14 points and Georgia strengthened its NCAA tournament hopes with a runaway 68-44 win over Missouri on Saturday.

Georgia (19-9, 10-6 Southeastern Conference) has won three straight games, including road wins against Alabama and Mississippi, since back-to-back disappointing home losses to Auburn and South Carolina.

“We can’t celebrate too much about this win,” said Frazier, who had 10 points, five assists and three steals. “We gave away two games at home. We made it tough on ourselves. Our back was against the wall, but we’re fighting out of it.”

The Bulldogs, 5-3 on the road in conference games, needed to avoid a third straight home loss to one of the league’s worst teams. Georgia began the day with a No. 29 ranking in the NCAA RPI and plays host to No. 1 Kentucky on Tuesday night.

Missouri (8-21, 2-14) couldn’t manage a second straight win after ending a 13-game losing streak by beating Florida 64-52 on Tuesday night. The Tigers, last in the SEC, trailed by double figures most of the game.

The Wildcats made only 14 of 49 shots from the field (28.6 percent). Missouri had worse shooting in only one other game this season, an 86-37 loss at Kentucky in which it made only 27.1 percent of its shots (16 of 59).

Missouri coach Kim Anderson said his players couldn’t match Georgia’s intensity.

“To their credit, (Georgia) came out today ready to play and it’s frustrating,” Anderson said. “In the first half especially, our front line really struggled to score. You can’t do that.”

Anderson said the Bulldogs “got every loose ball and every rebound that flew off.”

A 3-pointer by Djurisic gave Georgia an 18-8 lead. The Bulldogs led 30-18 following a 3 by Kenny Paul Geno, and they kept the lead in double figures the remainder of the game.

“We definitely made an emphasis that we wanted to come out and compete from the tip,” said forward Marcus Thornton.

Georgia led 41-23 at halftime and stretched the lead to 28 points at 55-27 on two straight baskets by Cameron Forte — a follow-up layup and a jam.

Following Forte’s jam, the Bulldogs kept the lead over 20 points despite going more than six minutes without scoring.

Forte had 10 points for Georgia. Thornton finished with eight points and seven rebounds.

TIP-INS

Missouri: A 3-pointer by Namon Wright gave the Tigers their only lead at 3-2. Wright, a freshman who had 28 points in the win over Florida, had 10 points. … Johnathan Williams also had 10 points despite making only 3 of 13 shots. … The Tigers were outrebounded 47-30.

Georgia: It was the largest margin of victory in a SEC game under coach Mark Fox. … The 1990 SEC championship team was recognized at halftime. Former coach Hugh Durham, who was welcomed with a long “Huuuugh!” from fans — returned with his players, including Litterial Green, Rod Cole and Neville Austin. Another star of the team, Alec Kessler, died in 2007 and was recently inducted posthumously into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame.

KENTUCKY IS COMING

Fox said undefeated Kentucky is “one of the great teams of all time” with a front line that is bigger than most NBA teams. Asked how he will prepare for the Wildcats, who beat the Bulldogs 69-58 on Feb. 3, Fox joked he may ask for help from Atlanta Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer.

“I’ll call Bud over there and see if we can scrimmage the Hawks tomorrow,” Fox said.

HEALING

Georgia sophomore guard Juwan Parker played for the first time since missing 11 straight games with an Achilles injury. Parker, who started in 14 of 15 games before the injury, had one point and one assist in a brief late-game appearance.

UP NEXT

Missouri: Hosts Auburn on Tuesday night.

Georgia: Hosts No. 1 Kentucky on Tuesday night.

— Associated Press —

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Missouri coach Kim Anderson has said repeatedly this season his team needs something good to happen.

Finally, something good happened.

It came in the form of Namon Wright, who scored a career-high 28 points on 10-of-13 shooting to lead the Tigers past Florida 64-52 on Tuesday. The win snapped the school’s record 13-game streak with a flourish.

“I was questioning whether he was going to miss tonight,” teammate Montaque Gill-Caesar said.

The freshman from Los Angeles carried the team nearly single-handedly in the opening minutes of each half, and his 6-of-8 performance from behind the 3-point line helped spark the loudest cheers in Mizzou Arena since the Tigers (8-20, 2-13 Southeastern Conference) last won on Jan. 8.

“We didn’t really have anybody who could stop him,” Gators coach Billy Donovan said.

Devin Robinson scored 14 points and Jon Horford added 10 for Florida (13-15, 6-9), which lost for the sixth time in seven games and prevented Donovan from earning his 500th career win. He would have joined Bob Knight as the only coaches in Division I history to reach the milestone before reaching their 50th birthday.

Missouri senior Keith Shamburger criticized the team’s effort after losing 76-53 at Vanderbilt on Saturday, saying slow starts are getting into the Tigers’ heads. Missouri missed six of its first seven shots in that game, but started 4 of 6 Tuesday thanks mostly to Wright.

Wright scored seven points in the first 4:27, providing a boost of energy that lasted through most of the opening half. The Tigers led for more than 13 of the game’s first 20 minutes, only to watch Florida take a 31-27 halftime lead after the Gators scored six of the final eight points.

Wright reignited after the break, pulling fans to their feet by scoring Missouri’s first 10 points in the first 3:43 to gain a 37-35 advantage. The Gators answered with nine unanswered points before Missouri countered with 11 of the next 12 for a 48-45 lead.

Florida narrowed its deficit to a single point on an ensuing jump shot from Chris Walker, but could get no closer during the final six minutes.

“I thought we really made a lot of poor choices, things that to be quite honest, left me scratching my head,” Donovan said.

The Tigers gradually stretched their lead to as many as 14 points to the delight of the 7,631 in attendance, most of whom remained standing during the last few minutes. As the final seconds ticked off, the student section started performing Florida’s “Gator Chomp” before joining other fans in sustained applause as the clock struck zero.

“I hope it gives us some confidence,” Anderson said. “I mean this has been miserable. This has been hard for me; it’s been hard for them. Let’s see if we can win another game.”

TIP-INS

Florida: The Gators only made 9 of 23 attempts from the free throw line, and finished 19 of 48 (39.6 percent) overall.

Missouri: After being outrebounded 46-26 at Vanderbilt on Saturday, the Tigers grabbed a 34-31 advantage on the boards on Tuesday. . The team finished 19 of 44 (43.2 percent) from the field. . Gill-Caesar and Johnathan Williams III both added nine points.

SHORT-HANDED GATORS

Florida played without its two leading scorers for a third consecutive game, with junior Michael Frazier II still nursing a high ankle sprain and junior Dorian Finney-Smith remaining suspended for an undisclosed violation of team rules. The duo combine for 26.1 points and 10.4 rebounds per game and did not make the trip.

UP NEXT

Florida returns home to face Tennessee on Saturday.

Missouri plays at Georgia on Saturday.

Nashville, Tenn. – The Missouri women’s basketball came out victorious on Sunday after a close finish against Vanderbilt as the Tigers topped the Commodores 54-51.

Missouri improves to 15-12 overall and 5-9 in SEC play. Led by sophomore Jordan Frericks, Mizzou had three Tigers finish in double-figures on the day.

Mizzou shot almost 52-percent from the field in the first half, and the Tigers forced five Vanderbilt turnovers before the break. Frericks led the Tigers through the half, going 6-for-8 from the floor good for 12 points. The sophomore standout finished with 15 points and eight rebounds in the game.

Vanderbilt came out of locker room with a vengeance, slowly chipping away at the Tiger lead. Smart shooting by the Tigers kept Mizzou in the lead, but with just a few minutes to play the Commodores made it a one-possession game. Maddie Stock hit a nice three-pointer with two minutes to play, keeping Mizzou’s distance from Vanderbilt. A three-point play with less than two minutes to play brought the Commodores within one, 50-49.

The Tigers held on to their lead grabbing two offensive rebounds to maintain possession throughout the last minute of play and a foul sent Maddie Stock to the free throw line with 14.9 seconds on the clock. Stock made her shot, and Morgan Eye followed up with two more. A Vanderbilt bucket with 12 seconds to play kept the game close, 53-51. Frericks added one more foul shot and secured Mizzou’s win over Vanderbilt, 54-51.4

The Tigers are back on the road next week at Texas A&M in an 8 p.m. game on Thursday. Mizzou will host the Arkansas Razorbacks on March 1 in its regular season finale.

— MU Sports Information —

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Kevin Stallings reminded his Vanderbilt Commodores before tipoff how much they need to both start and finish games better.

They listened very well.

Damian Jones scored 16 points and led five Commodores in double figures as Vanderbilt routed struggling Missouri 76-53 Saturday afternoon.

The Commodores (15-12, 5-9 Southeastern Conference) now have won two of their last three and improved to 4-2 in February. They scored the first seven points of the game and never trailed. The Commodores hit a season-high 10 3-pointers in posting their biggest margin of victory in a SEC win since winning 73-31 at Mississippi State on Feb. 23, 2013.

“I just liked how we were methodical and pretty workmanlike in what we tried to do,” Stallings said.

Wade Baldwin IV scored 13 points for Vanderbilt. Matthew Fisher-Davis, Riley LaChance and Luke Kornet each added 11.

Missouri (7-20, 1-13) lost its 13th straight for the longest skid in school history. Montaque Gill-Caesar led the Tigers with 11 points while Johnathan Williams II, their leading scorer averaging 12.6 points per game, was held to six points.

“Nobody’s more disappointed than me,” first-year coach Kim Anderson said. “But nobody’s more excited than me to go practice and try to work with these guys. You know it’s hard, it’s hard when you lose 13 in a row.”

Missouri started shooting poorly, missing six of its first seven shots. Vanderbilt had no such issues and quickly opened up a 14-4 lead and pushed that to as much as 24-10 on a jumper by Fisher-Davis with 8:56 left in the half. The Tigers strung together six straight points to trim that lead under double digits. Gill-Caesar hit a 3-pointer, then Keanu Post scored on a layup with eight seconds left to pull Missouri within 35-29.

But Josh Henderson beat the buzzer, tipping in a missed shot by Shelton Mitchell giving Vanderbilt a 37-29 halftime lead.

“We keep getting punched in the mouth first, and it’s affecting us,” Tigers guard Keith Shamburger said. “We got to start off better as a group simple as it gets. We got to start off hungry. Seven-20, and we’re playing like we’re 13-1 in conference. So we got to turn that around and just play harder.”

Jones opened the second half scoring six points within the first four minutes for Vanderbilt, and the rout was on as the Commodores pushed their lead to as much as 27 with 2:42 left on a 3-pointer by Baldwin. That was the Commodores’ 10th 3-pointer as they hit 41.7 percent for the game.

TIP-INS

Missouri: The Tigers now have topped the 12-game skids in each of the 1965-66 and 1966-67 seasons. … The Tigers came in ranked sixth in the SEC making an average of 6.3 3-pointers per game. They hit only 3 of 11 (27.3 percent). … Missouri was outrebounded 27-9 in the second half.

Vanderbilt: The Commodores dominated the boards 46-26. LaChance grabbed a career-best nine rebounds, while James Siakam had 13. … The Commodores got back Mitchell who missed the past four games because of concussion symptoms. He has started 11 games this season, but he entered the game at 12:18 of the first half. Mitchell had only two points but handed out four assists. … Vanderbilt had hit nine 3-pointers in five different games this season.

DOUBLING DAMIAN: The Tigers double-teamed Jones in the first half and held the preseason first-team All-SEC center to just two points and two rebounds. Jones had four of his blocks in the first 20 minutes. But Stallings said they noticed in the opening seconds of the second half that Missouri was not double-teaming him anymore when Jones missed a jump hook. That’s when Vanderbilt went to Jones over and over again as he scored 14 points and grabbed five in the half.

“When he plays like that, we’re pretty tough to beat,” LaChance said.

UP NEXT:

Missouri: Host Florida on Tuesday night.

Vanderbilt: Visit Tennessee on Thursday night.

— Associated Press —

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (AP) — Michael Qualls had 21 points and No. 18 Arkansas beat Missouri 84-69 on Wednesday night for its fifth straight victory and eighth in nine games.

Bobby Portis added 16 points on 8-of-12 shooting to help the Razorbacks (21-5, 10-3 Southeastern Conference) continue their best start in conference play since the 1997-98 season. Arkansas’ only loss since Jan. 17 is a 57-56 setback at Florida.

Qualls scored in double figures for the third straight game. The junior is 17 of 34 from the field in his last three games after going 14 of 59 in his previous five.

Missouri (7-19, 1-12) has lost 12 straight games for the first time since the 1966-67 season.

Jonathan Williams and Tramaine Isabell led the Tigers with 13 points each.

Arkansas beat Missouri 61-60 in their first meeting on Jan. 24, needing a pair of missed free throws by the Tigers in the closing seconds to hold on for the win.

The Tigers once again gave the Razorbacks, who are in search of their first NCAA tournament appearance since 2008, fits in the first half — with Isabell putting Missouri up 19-16 with a 3-pointer.

Led by the resurgent Qualls, Arkansas answered with a 15-0 run to take control after that. Qualls had six points during the run, and Portis — who also had nine rebounds — capped the run with an inside basket to put the Razorbacks up 31-19.

Missouri closed the Arkansas lead to 37-29 at halftime, but the Razorbacks extended their lead to 44-29 to open the second half and were never threatened after that.

Qualls was 4 of 7 on 3-pointers, helping Arkansas to 10 of 22 overall from behind the arc, and he topped the 20-point mark for the first time since a career-best 30-point outburst against Alabama on Jan. 22.

The forward also had a highlight-worthy one-handed dunk in the second half to put Arkansas up 61-56, his 26th dunk of the season.

Anton Beard added 13 points for the Razorbacks.

TIP-INS

Missouri: A game after scoring a career-best 27 points against Mississippi State, Williams was 4 of 11 from the field for the Tigers. Missouri was 26-of-52 shooting (50 percent) overall, but it was only 6 of 17 on 3-pointers and committed 20 turnovers.

Arkansas: Former Final Four Most Outstanding Player Corliss Williamson was honored at halftime of Wednesday’s game. Flanked by his family, former teammates and former coach, Nolan Richardson, the current Sacramento Kings assistant coach — who led Arkansas to the Razorbacks only national title in 1994 — had a banner with his name and No. 34 hung inside Bud Walton Arena.

UP NEXT

Missouri returns to the road when it travels to Vanderbilt on Saturday.

Arkansas is at Mississippi State on Saturday.

— Associated Press —

Columbia, Mo. – The Missouri women’s basketball team took down Ole Miss on  Sunday, defeating the Rebels 72-58.  The Tigers move to 14-12 overall and 4-9 in SEC play. Several Tigers stood out in the game with three finishing in double figures, led by Morgan Eye who tallied 16 points and five rebounds.

Mizzou came out hot in the first half, scoring off the opening tip. The Tigers knocked down a bucket by sophomore Jordan Frericks followed by a three-pointer by sophomore Sierra Michaelis. The Tigers used a 10-0 run over a two-minute span in the first half to stretch their lead to 21-7. Mizzou found scoring from eight different players and were led by junior Maddie Stock and junior Michelle Hudyn with eight points, respectively.

The Mizzou defense held the Rebels to a 28.9 field goal percentage and forced six Ole Miss turnovers. Mizzou went into the locker room leading the Rebels, 38-25.

Stretching the lead to 18 points, the Tigers were firing on all cylinders in the second half. Mizzou continued to beat Ole Miss’s pressure on defense and distribute the ball well. The Tigers ended the game with 14 assists on 26 field goals. Despite Ole Miss’ 27 offensive rebounds in the game, the Tigers were able to hold the Rebels to just 15 second chance points, stifling any addition shots the Rebels could take.

Senior Morgan Eye continued on her quest to the NCAA statistical leader in three-pointers made, knocking down two treys and going 4-for-4 from the line, amassing a team-high 16 points. Sierra Michaelis was again an offensive weapon for Mizzou scoring another 15 points and grabbing seven rebounds. Junior Michelle Hudyn had a career-high 10 points in the contest and added another seven rebounds for the Tigers.

Mizzou found 32 of their 72 points in the paint and shot the ball efficiently throughout the game, ending the contest a 54.2 field goal percentage.

The Tigers are on the road for the next two games. They travel to Vanderbilt for a contest against the Commodores next Sunday (Feb. 22) at 1:00 p.m. and then go to Texas A&M on Feb. 26 for a 7:00 p.m. game.

— MU Sports Information —

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Mississippi State coach Rick Ray said Saturday he doesn’t care how his team wins on the road, just so long as it does. Still, he would like the Bulldogs to play better when holding a lead.

“I thought we got a little lackadaisical out there and lost some discipline, but fortunately we were able to hang on for the win,” he said after his team held off Missouri, 77-74.

After generating an 11-point halftime lead, the Bulldogs (12-13, 5-7 Southeastern Conference) converted all six of their free throws in the final minute to edge the Tigers, who lost their 11th consecutive game since winning their SEC opener against LSU on Jan. 8.

Roquez Johnson and Craig Sword both finished with 22 points to pace Mississippi State, which ended a two-game losing streak and won its third league game on the road.

Johnathan Williams III finished with a career-high 27 points for Missouri (7-18, 1-11), while Keith Shamburger added 15 and Ryan Rosburg a season-high 12.

“You’ve heard it before,” Tigers coach Kim Anderson said. “We got close, and we just couldn’t finish the deal.”

Despite Missouri scoring the first five points of the game, the Bulldogs seized control in the first half, using a 21-5 run to grab a 33-16 lead with 7:21 remaining before halftime. The Tigers answered with seven points of their own, but trailed 40-29 entering the break.

Missouri came to life in the second half, using a 13-4 run to narrow its deficit to 46-42 five minutes in. When Keanau Post drained a layup with 4:29 remaining to give the Tigers a 64-63 advantage — the team’s first lead in nearly 32 minutes — an elated crowd of 8,278 jumped to its feet, hoping for an end to the school’s longest losing streak in 48 years.

It wasn’t meant to be, though, as Johnson answered with a traditional three-point play off an offensive rebound to give the Bulldogs the lead for good despite the pressurized final 60 seconds.

“Everyone was all excited,” Rosburg said. “That’s just the way it is. One possession can change everything. If they don’t get that and we build a lead, then who knows what happens.”

TIP-INS

Mississippi State: The Bulldogs combined to shoot 31 of 91 (34.1 percent) in their previous two games, but finished 23 of 41 (56.1 percent) Saturday, moving to 9-1 when shooting 45 percent or better in a game.

Missouri: The Tigers honored this year’s inductees to the school’s Athletics Hall of Fame at halftime, including current NFL players Chase Coffman, Chase Daniel and Jeremy Maclin. . Missouri finished 26 of 59 (44.1 percent) overall from the field.

TIGER TRANSACTIONS

Missouri received a bit of a boost from the return of freshmen guards Montaque Gill-Caesar and Namon Wright, both of whom were suspended two games stemming from undisclosed violations of team rules. The duo entered the day combining for 15.1 points per game, and together scored eight on Saturday.

Missouri was still limited to nine scholarship players, though, as sophomore guard Wes Clark watched from the bench while wearing a sling to protect a dislocated right elbow incurred at South Carolina on Tuesday. He will miss the remainder of the season.

Freshman guard Tramaine Isabell, meanwhile, missed his fifth consecutive game after coach Kim Anderson described his behavior as “unacceptable” last month.

FREE THROWS

Mississippi State finished 26 for 33 at the line, while Missouri converted just 14 of 21 attempts.

“Any time you’re in a tight ballgame, you’ve got to score when the clock is stopped,” Ray said.

UP NEXT

Mississippi State returns home to face rival Mississippi on Thursday.

Missouri hits the road to play Arkansas on Wednesday.

— Associated Press —