NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Of all the acts on Nashville's Broadway, Tennessee and Missouri provided the most entertaining inside Bridgestone Arena on Friday.

In the second meeting between the two teams this season, the Vols and Tigers traded blows for 39 minutes, trying to extend their stay in the SEC Tournament and punch their ticket to Saturday's semifinals against top-seeded Alabama.

Fifth-seed Tennessee led with less than five minutes left but No. 4 seed Missouri closed out the game on a 14-5 run and downed the Vols, 79-71.

Guard Santiago Vescovi led Tennessee with 17 points and guard Tyreke Key scored 16 while forward Olivier Nkamhoua turned in a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds but 14 turnovers for the second-straight day and another late scoring drought plagued the Vols (23-10) down the stretch.

Guard D'Moi Hodge was stellar for the Tigers, totaling a game-high 26 points on 9-of-16 shooting and Kobe Brown scored 24 along with nine rebounds.

Vescovi opened the game with a pair of 3-pointers that Missouri answered with scores from Brown and D'Andre Gholston to draw even less than four minutes in.

Tennessee went nearly two minutes without a basket, but responded with a 10-3 run started by a James jumper and included an Nkamhoua dunk to give the Vols a 16-9 lead.

Missouri used a run of its own to tie the score for a second time and the rest of the half went back-and-forth from that point.

Both teams suffered through scoring droughts that went for more than two minutes before the Tigers took the lead on Brown's layup with less than two minutes left.

Brown hit a three the closing seconds that appeared to give Missouri some momentum at the half with a tie score but for the second time in as many days, Tennessee connected from deep at the buzzer as Jahmai Mashack's heave from around mid-court fell through to give the Vols a 33-30 advantage at the break.

Separation was equally hard to come by in the second half, too.

Missouri looked in position to in the early-going, going up four on Noah Carter's 3-pointer that was part of a 8-2 run that put the Tigers head 53-49 with 14:26 left, but quickly closed the gap and reclaimed the lead on back-to-back threes from Key.

Tennessee ran out of answers in the last two minutes, though.

Mashack tied at the free throw line with two minutes left, but Honor put Missouri back in front with a three and Hodge provided the dagger with another to swell the Tigers' (24-8) lead to six with just over a minute to go.

Out of the SEC Tournament, Tennessee will wait for its NCAA Tournament fate on Selection Sunday.

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