Missouri men’s basketball escapes exhibition with win

The smiles on the faces of the Missouri basketball newcomers quickly wore off Friday night.

When you trail in the second half against an NCAA Division II team like Central Missouri, that tends to happen. Throughout the game, the intensity of freshman guard Willie Jackson faded. The often-joking freshman center Mitchell Smith sat serious. Even Missouri coach Kim Anderson, who took the Warrensburg foe to a national title in 2014, stood solemn.

It wasn’t easy, nor was it pretty, but Missouri did turn out the 66-59 victory.

“You’ve got to give Central Missouri credit,” Anderson said. “That’s probably the most disappointed winning locker room that I’ve seen.”

After Missouri led 23-19 af halftime, Central Missouri poured in back-to-back buckets that cut the Tigers’ lead to two points early in the second half. Then, with 14 minute, 47 seconds remaining, the Mules took a 33-32 lead.

The crowd was stunned, Jackson was mad.

“The level we’re on, that should never happen,” Jackson said. “It’s (about) players not being ready, but we’re going to improve.”

Right on cue, Jackson made a jumper to retake the lead, and freshman center Reed Nikko followed that bucket with a dunk and an and-1, which propelled Missouri to a 21-2 run that extended the Tigers lead to 53-35. Missouri sophomore guard Jordan Geist, who finished with 11 points, made two three-pointers and a jumper during the run.

“I’m trying to bring everything I’ve got to the table for this team,” Geist said postgame, “and those buckets felt good.

“What matters is a win. We’re not happy with (this performance), but we’re going to come back and be ready (going forward).”

Missouri scored the game’s first five points, but senior center Russell Woods, who scored three of the Tigers’ first five points, had to leave the game with two fouls less than four minutes in.

Fouling was a theme in the first half, and the Tigers put the Mules in the bonus with 9 minutes, 31 seconds on the clock. Central Missouri shot six free throws in the first half and made them all.

The Mules shot 19.2 percent from the field in the first half, but Missouri shot just 29.6 percent. Sophomore forward Kevin Puryear, who was last year’s leading scorer for the Tigers, was held scoreless.

Puryear finished with one point, but afterwards, Anderson said “he’ll be fine.”

“Some nights, you just don’t have good nights,” Anderson said, but then spoke of his team’s entire first half performance. “I don’t care what they say, I think they were all nervous.”

After scoring a team-high 22 points in last Sunday’s “secret scrimmage” against Creighton, freshman shooting guard Frankie Hughes poured in a team-high 15 Friday night.

Anderson marveled at Hughes’ confidence and said he’ll continue to grow as the year goes on. The same goes for his team, a group Anderson said “needed” this type of performance.

“I hope I prove myself right — I think this is the best thing that could’ve happened to us,” Anderson said. “I think we have a group of great guys, but maybe we needed a little bit of a wake-up call.”

This story was originally published November 4, 2016 at 9:26 PM with the headline "Missouri men’s basketball escapes exhibition with win."