Knecht gets hot in second half, scores 17 as No. 5 Tennessee rallies past Mizzou, 72-67

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Tennessee coach Rick Barnes asked the young guys on his bench at halftime, when the fifth-ranked Volunteers were losing to struggling Missouri, what they needed to turn things around over the final 20 minutes.

“They said, ‘I think we need more effort,’” Barnes recalled.

Dalton Knecht provided that, scoring 15 of his 17 points after the break, and a bigger lineup Barnes used out of the locker room paid off as Tennessee rallied from a seven-point deficit to beat the Tigers 72-67 on Tuesday night.

Tobe Awaka had 18 points and 10 rebounds, Jonas Aidoo added 14 points and Zakai Zeigler 10 for the Vols (20-6, 10-3), whose fifth straight win at Mizzou Arena allowed them to close within a half game of No. 13 Alabama in the SEC race.

“We knew they were going to come in and fight and it’s hard to do that when you’ve had the kind of conference season they’ve had,” Barnes said, “but they came in and fought. I thought in the first half they played with a greater sense of urgency.”

Sean East II scored 24 points and Noah Carter had 20 for the Tigers (8-18, 0-13), who have lost 15 of their last 16 overall.

“They’re well-balanced. They have everything you need that’s a characteristic of a national championship team,” Missouri coach Dennis Gates said. “They have inside play, they have depth, they have shooting.”

The Vols also drew a lot of fouls, which Gates said his own team was “terrible” at doing — while dropping a four-letter word that begins with “F” and he pointedly asked reporters not to “bleep out” while transcribing his comments.

The Vols and Tigers combined for a single point — Carter’s free throw for Missouri — over the first four-plus minutes, missing the first 10 field-goal attempts and turning the ball over seven times in a sloppy and…