Tennessee defeated Missouri 72-67 on the road on Tuesday night.

It wasn’t always pretty, but the Vols picked up a much-needed road win to stay in the mix for the SEC regular season title. The Vols are now just a half game behind Alabama for first place in the SEC.

Here are 3 takeaways from Tennessee’s win:

Overcoming a quiet night from Dalton Knecht

Dalton Knecht has been the primary source of offense for Tennessee all season long, but that wasn’t the case on Tuesday. Knecht had a quiet game by his standards, scoring 17 points on 6-of-16 shooting. He really struggled from the field, particularly in the first half as he went 0-for-6 and scored just 2 points before the break. Knecht also had 5 turnovers in the win.

With Knecht not playing up to his usual level, the Vols had an answer from an unlikely source: Tobe Awaka. Awaka scored a team-high 18 points in this contest on 6-of-8 shooting. He also went 6-of-7 from the foul line and nabbed 10 rebounds.

Awaka and Knecht were joined by Jonas Aidoo and Zakai Zeigler with 10+ points on the night. As a team, Tennessee shot just 42.1% from the floor but made 19 free throws to make up for that inefficiency.

Elite defense

As is often the case with this Tennessee team, the defense carried the day. The Vols held Missouri to just 37.5% shooting from the floor in this game. The Tigers also managed just 11 assists compared to 15 turnovers in this contest.

Two Missouri players did almost all of the work offensively: Noah Carter and Sean East II. That duo combined for 44 points on 25 shots. Outside of those 2 players, Tennessee limited Mizzou to 23 points on 31 shots. Simply put, the Vols were able to completely shut down the vast majority of Missouri’s offense in this game.

Aidoo had 4 blocks, leading the way in that category. As a team, Tennessee produced 9 steals — every player who spent at least 12 minutes on the court recorded at least 1 steal in the win.

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Examining Tennessee’s path to the regular season SEC title

Tennessee is now 10-3 in league play, just a half game back of Alabama at 10-2 atop the league standings. Alabama plays Florida on Wednesday in a top-25 matchup in Tuscaloosa.

Both teams have very difficult schedules down the stretch. Tennessee’s remaining slate includes 4 Quad 1 opponents, including matchups against Auburn and Kentucky in Knoxville. The Vols will also host Texas A&M (currently a Quad 2 game) and travel to face South Carolina on the road before the end of the regular season. Perhaps most importantly, Tennessee will travel to face Alabama on March 2 in a game that could determine who takes home the regular season title.

Alabama also has a difficult schedule remaining — and a much tougher slate of road games. The Tide will have to play at Kentucky, Ole Miss and Florida before the end of the regular season. They will host the Gators, Tennessee and a lowly Arkansas team in their regular season finale.

Both Tennessee and Alabama have remaining strength-of-schedules ranked inside the top-20 nationally, per ESPN’s basketball power index.