Missouri blows out North Florida, surpasses last season’s win total

Missouri coach Cuonzo Martin has already surpassed his program’s win total from last season and he hasn’t even finished the non-conference portion of the schedule.

The Tigers won their fourth consecutive game as they blew out North Florida 85-51 on Saturday night to improve to 9-2 with a pair of games remaining before Southeastern Conference play starts.

Missouri traded a few baskets with the Ospreys early before going on a 20-3 run that gave the Tigers plenty of breathing room for the remainder of the game. Senior Jordan Barnett finished with a double-double of 18 points and 11 rebounds and powered the run as he found open teammates and crashed the boards to give Missouri multiple second chances on offense.

In Missouri’s past two games, against Miami of Ohio and Green Bay, the majority of Barnett’s points came from behind the arc. The 6-foot- 6 senior played with more balance on offense Saturday as he scored from all over the floor.

“Sometimes, when my three is falling, I may at times settle,” Barnett said. “But I think tonight was a good example of me scoring any possible way I could.”

Barnett’s layup with 8:26 left in the first half gave him 11 points while the Ospreys were still in single-digits.

The Ospreys did themselves no favors as they shot just 21 percent from the floor in the first half. North Florida entered the game as one of the better three-point shooting teams in the country, with six players averaging over 40 percent from beyond the arc.

Missouri’s defense held the Ospreys to 18 percent (5-for-28) from three-point range.

“That’s exactly what we wanted to do,” Barnett said. “I know they’re supposed to get up like 30 attempts a game so the fact that they only hit five of them against us is huge.”

Coming off his career-high 28-point performance against Green Bay, Tigers point guard Jordan Geist continued his strong play by scoring 11 points off the bench. Missouri finished with five players in double-figures.

The Tigers got points from every scholarship player who got in the game except point guard Terrence Phillips, who played a minute in the first half before leaving with what Martin called a foot injury. Phillips didn’t return to the bench in the second half.

Ospreys sophomore forward Wajid Aminu led North Florida with 13 points.

Missouri’s next game is against Stephen F. Austin on Tuesday. The Lumberjacks come to Mizzou Arena with a 10-1 record, and upset LSU on Saturday 83-82. Stephen F. Austin leads the nation in steals and has a veteran-heavy roster.

“They’ve been a talented program probably for the last 10 years,” Martin said. “It will be a fight. It won’t be a cakewalk.”

This story was originally published December 16, 2017 at 9:21 PM with the headline "Missouri blows out North Florida, surpasses last season’s win total."