Missouri beats Arkansas State 88-78, snaps three-game losing streak

Five Missouri players reached double figures Tuesday during a 88-78 victory against Arkansas State at Mizzou Arena.

The win, which snapped a three-game skid and returned the Tigers to .500, started about as well as possible for second-year coach Kim Anderson, who was disappointed with a winless showing in the CBE Classic last week at the Sprint Center.

Missouri, 3-3, scored the game’s first 13 points, led by as many as 20 in the first half and pumped the lead to 25 in the opening minutes of the second half.

The Red Wolves, 2-5, trimmed the deficit to single digits with around 7 minutes remaining as the Tigers went ice cold from the field — 2 of 13 overall — and committed four turnovers during a two-minute span.

“I asked the guys after the game, ‘Hey, what do you think happened in the second half?’ and they said, ‘Well, we lost focus,’ ” Anderson said. “Maybe that was part of it, but I thought (Arkansas State) did a great job of taking the ball to the basket and we couldn’t stop them. We’ve got to get better at that.”

Missouri led by 18 after a free throw by sophomore D’Angelo Allen with 9:17 remaining, but Arkansas State pulled within four on a Devin Carter three-pointer less than five minutes later.

“Our biggest problem was we didn’t do a very good job defensively,” Anderson said. “There were times when you could drive a truck through the lane on both ends of the floor, on our end and on their end. That’s something we’ve got to work on.”

Freshman Kevin Puryear snapped a 14-1 run with a bucket only to have Carter, who scored a game-high 24, answer from long range, trimming the Tigers’ lead to 70-66.

Sophomore Namon Wright took over with a personal six-point run, including a four-point play — he made a three and the free throw after getting fouled — and a leak out for a layup off a steal by freshman Terrence Phillips.

“That was big,” Wright said. “It helped us turn the tide and get a little bit of momentum for us.”

The lead hovered between eight and 13 the rest of the way.

Wright finished with a team-high 14 points, while sophomore Tramaine Isabell added 11 and three players — Puryear, senior Ryan Rosburg and freshman K.J. Walton — each chipped in 10 points.

“It felt good,” said Wright, who connected on three three-pointers. “I’m not going to lie. … As players, you just need to see it go in once or twice and then you get going.”

Arkansas State went scoreless for the first 6:06 as Missouri built a 13-0 lead behind its frontcourt.

Rosburg, who started his second consecutive game, scored the Tigers’ first four points and his replacement, junior Russell Woods, made it 6-0 with a bucket.

Wright added a three-pointer and sophomore Jakeenan Gant putback his own miss, extending the lead before junior Wes Clark’s layup finished it.

Missouri’s lead reached as many as 20 aided by a couple threes from freshman Cullen VanLeer and a three-point play by Walton.

Rosburg also scored another layup before Puryear powered through contact for a hoop and hit a free throw coming out of the under-8-minute TV timeout for a 27-7 lead.

“The first half was obviously very good,” Anderson said. “We did a great job. We shot the ball well. We got the ball to the basket. We rebounded well. We got the ball in the paint. We played extremely well. I thought we played loose. I thought we played hard.”

The Red Wolves battled back with a 13-4 run fueled by two threes by Carter, but never got closer than 31-20 before halftime.

Walton won the scramble for a loose-ball offensive rebound and was hacked on the putback try, but Arkansas State coach John Brady’s animated disapproval drew a technical.

Clark hit the two technical-foul shots and Walton connected on both common-foul free throws as Missouri reasserted control.

Allen’s rejection of a floater by Sean Gardner got the crowd of 5,104 on its feet.

Isabell helped the Tigers close the half strongly with a three-pointer, a three-point play and a nifty floater at the buzzer en route to a 19-point halftime lead.

MISSOURI 88

ARKANSAS STATE 78

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Percentages: FG .382, FT .667. Three-Point Goals: 8-19, .421 (Carter 5-8, Gardner 2-6, Dure 1-4, Livingston 0-1). Blocked Shots: 7 (Downs 2, Thomas, Dure, Waters, Carter, Gardner). Turnovers: 7 (Carter 3, Hardwick 2, Livingston, Dure). Steals: 6 (Hardwick 2, Thomas 2, Livingston, Gardner). Technical Fouls: None.

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Percentages: FG .477, FT .731. Three-Point Goals: 7-16, .438 (Wright 3-5, Isabell 2-2, VanLeer 2-4, Clark 0-1, Gant 0-1, Puryear 0-1, Phillips 0-2). Blocked Shots: 5 (Allen, Wright, Woods, Walton, Gant). Turnovers: 10 (Clark 3, Puryear 3, Woods, VanLeer, Rosburg, Walton). Steals: 2 (Phillips, Isabell). Technical Fouls: None.

Half: Missouri 48-29. Att: N/A. Officials: Doug Shows, Ron Groover, Olandis Poole.

AP-WF-12-02-15 0407GMT

This story was originally published December 1, 2015 at 8:58 PM with the headline "Missouri beats Arkansas State 88-78, snaps three-game losing streak."