No. 13 Arizona crushes error-prone Missouri 88-52

Missouri’s first trip to Tucson was a memorable one for all the wrong reasons.

The Tigers were stranded Saturday for 9 hours in Lubbock, Texas, when the plane they were traveling on had a mechanical issue with the landing gear during a refueling stop.

The delay forced Missouri to do its walk-through in a hangar on a taped-off makeshift court before a new plane could be put into service.

Things didn’t get much better Sunday for the Tigers against No. 13 Arizona.

Missouri coach Kim Anderson burned a timeout only 89 seconds into the game.

The Tigers had just committed their second turnover and already trailed 6-0, including two layups by freshman guard Allonzo Trier and a dunk by sophomore center Dusan Ristic.

“This is a great environment and this is a great place to play,” Anderson said. “I basically wanted to try to calm them down a little bit, but I think you’ve got to give Arizona credit. They played extremely well.”

The timeout momentarily steadied Anderson’s team, but ultimately Missouri was outclassed 88-52 at the McKale Center, where the Wildcats have now won 44 consecutive games.

“They took us out of certain offensive things, but honestly offensively we just missed shot,” freshman guard Terrence Phillips said. “We missed a lot of chippies around the bucket that I’ve seen our bigs make countless times over and over again. We missed wide-open shot, we missed putbacks. Offensively, that was on us tonight. We’ve got to make shots.”

It was the Tigers’ worst loss since an 86-37 loss Jan. 13, 2015, at Kentucky.

Arizona, 9-1, last lost at home was a 77-69 loss against California on Feb. 10, 2013.

Meanwhile, Missouri, 5-4, has lost nine straight games against ranked opponents and 16 in a row away from Mizzou Arena.

The Tigers, who begin finals week Monday, were expected to get back to Columbia around 3 a.m., barring any more flight trouble.

The Wildcats were without 7-foot senior center Kaleb Tarczewski and 6-5 junior guard Elliott Pitts, but it didn’t matter against a Tigers team that shot a season-low 30.4 percent from the field (17 of 56) and got outrebounded 44-27.

“They’re big and strong,” Anderson said. “… They made it hard to get in the lane and they did a great job on ball screens.”

Missouri especially struggled to finish at the rim.

Several Tigers made nice moves to get into the paint during the early going — a drive by sophomore Namon Wright, a take by freshman Kevin Puryear and power move by sophomore Jakeenan Gant — but none resulted in points.

Missouri trailed 22-8 after a more than 5-minute scoring drought that featured seven consecutive missed shots before Gant connected on back-to-back buckets.

Wright followed with a three-pointer that trimmed Arizona’s lead to 22-15.

The Wildcats — who shot 56.4 percent, going 31 of 55 overall and 7 of 17 from three-point range — had endured a more than 3-minute scoring drought of their own.

Missouri’s surge was short-lived.

Senior Gabe York fired in a three-pointer and Trier splashed in another before senior forward Ryan Anderson finished a two-handed slam over Gant, finishing the three-point play for a 31-15 lead.

“We’ve got to be better and we’ve got to be able to withstand runs,” Phillips said. “We let 4-0 runs go to 11-0 runs. We cut it down to seven … in the first half. We were back in it, and they went on an 11-0 run. We can’t have that.”

It got silly a minute later after a rash Tigers turnovers.

Sophomore Tramaine Isabell got his pocket picked by Wildcats junior Kadeem Allen, triggering a fast break.

Phillips hustled back and tried to stop Allen from getting a layup.

Instead, Allen threw a lob to York for a thunderous slam that delighted a crowd of 14,644.

It was one of 20 assists for the Wildcats compared with a season-low six for the Tigers. It also was one of eight dunks for Arizona in the game and capped an 11-0 run.

“We probably got too comfortable and Arizona picked it up again,” Anderson said. “We had opportunities way early to get back in the game, but we couldn’t make a shot.”

Missouri went 2 of 10 to close the half, while Arizona finished with five dunks in the final 6 1/2 minutes in building a 42-23 halftime lead.

“The whole night (our defense) was disappointing, to be honest with you,” Anderson said. “It’s not like we didn’t know what was coming. Now, I do think they played really well. I’d give them a lot of credit. I just thought that our confidence got shaken a little bit. There were times they were playing above the rim a little bit and we were standing there watching them. You can’t go that against Arizona.”

The Tigers, who lost 72-53 against the Wildcats during last season’s Maui Invitational, never cut into that 19-point halftime lead.

Arizona led by as many as 39 points in the second half and had six players finish in double figures led by backup forward Mark Tollefsen’s season-high 17 points and 16 from York.

Missouri didn’t have any players reach double figures. Wright finished with nine, while junior Wes Clark and Gant each score eight.

Puryear, who had scored 10-plus points in seven of eight games, finished with four on 2-of-10 shooting. He added a team-high five rebounds.

Phillips finished 2 of 9 and Wright was 2 of 8, while junior forward Russell Woods went 1 of 5 and Isabell was 0 of 4 from the field.

Clark, who fouled out midway through the second half, shot 4 of 5 and Gant was 3 of 6 shooting.

No. 13 ARIZONA 88

MISSOURI 52

TableStyle: SP-bkwideplayersCCI Template: SP-bkwideplayers

Percentages: FG .304, FT .615. Three-Point Goals: 2-14, .143 (Wolf 1-1, Wright 1-2, Clark 0-1, Isabell 0-2, Puryear 0-2, VanLeer 0-3, Phillips 0-3). Blocked Shots: 1 (Rosburg). Turnovers: 12 (Isabell 3, Wright 2, Rosburg, Allen, VanLeer, Gant, Phillips, Puryear, Clark). Steals: 3 (Phillips 2, Isabell). Technical Fouls: None. Fouled Out: Clark.

TableStyle: SP-bkwideplayersCCI Template: SP-bkwideplayers

Percentages: FG .564, FT .760. Three-Point Goals: 7-17, .412 (York 3-4, Trier 2-3, Anderson 1-1, Tollefsen 1-2, Allen 0-3, Jackson-Cartwright 0-4). Blocked Shots: 4 (Ristic 2, Comanche, Tollefsen). Turnovers: 15 (Comanche 3, Anderson 2, Allen 2, Ristic 2, Simon 2, Jackson-Cartwright 2, Tollefsen, York). Steals: 6 (Simon 3, Anderson 2, Allen). Technical Fouls: None. Fouled Out: None.

Half: Arizona 42-23. Attendance: 14,644. Officials: Mike Reed, Mike Scyphers, Eric Curry.

This story was originally published December 13, 2015 at 8:24 PM with the headline "No. 13 Arizona crushes error-prone Missouri 88-52."