Missouri ends regular season with 52-43 loss at Mississippi State

Missouri’s final game of the regular season ended as so many others have — in defeat.

Craig Sword’s game-high 15 points led Mississippi State to a 52-43 victory over the Tigers. It was the Bulldogs’ largest margin of victory in an Southeastern Conference game this season.

Missouri, 9-22 overall and 3-15 in the SEC, was led by Keith Shamburger and Namon Wright with 12 points each. Johnathan Williams III added 10 points for the Tigers.

“Most of the year we have been offensively challenged, and tonight was no exception,” MU coach Kim Anderson said. “I thought we did get off to a decent start and had the opportunity to build a little bit of a lead early in the game but then we didn’t do a good job, defensively. We missed some free throws, and in the second half we turned the ball over two or three times that was totally unforced and threw it out of bounds for no reason.

“It was a disappointing loss and I guess we are back to 0-0 now. We hope to go to the (SEC) Tournament next week and play well.”

It was the first time Mississippi State held an SEC opponent under 50 points since limiting LSU to 39 points in 2008. The Tigers’ point-total was their second-lowest in the SEC after scoring just 37 against Kentucky earlier this season.

“I was just told this by the SEC Network, but Missouri didn’t score consecutive baskets for the entire game,” Mississippi State coach Rick Ray said. “So I was really happy what our guys did on the defensive end. I was frustrated with what we did, defensively, the last two games, and that has to be our calling card because we are going to have offensive struggles.”

Missouri had a 37-32 advantage in rebounding, and got a game-high 12 boards from Williams. The Tigers shot just 30 percent for the game, while holding Mississippi State to 39.5 percent. MU made just eight of 15 free throws, and was five of 17 on three-pointers.

“I thought we did a good job rebounding all night,” Anderson said. “And Johnathan was certainly active and did a good job on the boards. I thought we could throw it inside, too, and we had success in Columbia (against Mississippi State) doing that but we missed so many easy shots. We were getting easy shots but were not making them around the basket.

“But I thought Mississippi State did a good job and played with some urgency. I know they had lost a few games in a row and they wanted to get out of that streak going into the (SEC) Tournament.”

Mississippi State built a 31-19 lead early in the second half before the Tigers stormed back and cut the deficit to 36-32. The Bulldogs responded with a 7-0 run that was capped by a Sword three-pointer.

Missouri never got closer than seven points the rest of the way. Mississippi State’s Demetrius Houston hit four of six free throws in the final 89 seconds.

“For Demetrius to come in and hit those free throws was big for us,” Ray said. “We wanted him on the court to get those rebounds but we were worried about whether he could knock down free throws. But he’s really matured lately and was big for us today.”

Sword scored 10 of his 15 points in the second half, and also had three assists and two blocked shots. Point guard I.J. Ready finished with seven assists and just one turnover for the Bulldogs in 32 minutes of action.

“That is what he is supposed to do,” Sword said of Ready. “He gets us open shots and then takes good shots. He did that well tonight.

“And I’ve just got to keep letting my drives open up for me and my shot keeps opening that up. It gets pretty easy if I keep knocking down shots.”

The Bulldogs made four of 11 three-pointers and had just 12 turnovers.

Both teams struggled offensively in the first half. Mississippi State was trailing 10-9 at the midway point before going on an 11-3 run and taking a 20-12 lead after a Travis Daniels three-pointer.

The Bulldogs maintained that eight-point advantage the rest of the half and led 27-19 at halftime. Mississippi State shot 46 percent in the first half while holding the Tigers to just 28 percent.

This story was originally published March 7, 2015 at 7:43 PM with the headline "Missouri ends regular season with 52-43 loss at Mississippi State."