Kansas City Roos shock Missouri Tigers men’s basketball with 80-66 victory in Columbia
The Kansas City Roos men’s basketball team picked up a monumental victory Monday night, upsetting Missouri 80-66 at Mizzou Arena.
It was the first victory over a Power Five conference team for third-year UMKC coach Billy Donlon. Entering Monday, the Roos had lost 15 straight games against the Power Five since beating Mississippi State 72-67 on Dec. 12, 2015.
“We try to be a program based on toughness,” Donlon said. “I think Kansas City is a blue collar city. And we want our players when they play, we want our fans to feel like we’re representing our city with how blue collar we are, how tough we are ... I thought tonight we did a great job with that against a incredibly tough program.”
The Roos entered the game as 11 1/2-point underdogs and came away with their second straight upset of the Tigers. The last time the two state university teams met on Nov. 14, 2014, the Roos won 69-61.
Guard Evan Gilyard II led Kansas City with 28 points, along with four rebounds. He shot 6-of-8 from beyond the three-point arc. Guard Marvin Nesbitt Jr. had 20 points, five rebounds and four assists, while guard Anderson Copp finished with 12 points and seven rebounds.
“Give those guys a ton of credit for playing with the tenacity and the toughness and the togetherness in which they play,” Donlon said. “It’s a great confidence builder for our team for a lot of reasons.”
Kansas City shot 51% from the floor and 48% from three, compared to marks of 47% and 29% for Mizzou.
The Roos built an early lead behind the shooting of guard Anderson Kopp, who had splashed two threes by the under-16 timeout, at which point Kansas City was up 10-6.
“We fed off that energy,” Gilyard said. “...[Kopp] shooting the ball and knocking down those shots, that opened up a lot.”
Mizzou coach Cuonzo Martin called a timeout with 8:02 left in the first half after Kansas City jumped out to a 24-14 lead behind a quick 5-0 run. Even when the Roos went on scoring droughts, they never let the Tigers build scoring runs of their own in the opening frame as the home team looked stagnant on offense. Mizzou turned the ball over 18 times Monday night and never appeared fully in sync.
Kansas City entered halftime up 32-23, confident as ever.
“I just feel like we came in with great energy,” Gilyard said. “We weren’t taking a loss for an answer. We played together, we played as a family, we [stuck] together through thick and thin ... We really bought into the defense and bought into everything that we had to do.”
The two teams went back and forth to open the second half, until the Roos went on a run that effectively put the game in the palm of their hands.
With under 15 minutes left, Nesbitt stole the ball away from Mizzou’s Kobe Brown and stormed down the court, no defender trailing in sight. He then rose up for an emphatic slam, capping off a 6-0 run that put his team up 44-29 with 14:08 left. They built the lead to as many as 22 points.
“I saw an opportunity and I went for it,” Nesbitt said. “I just wanted to leave it all out there. And I knew if I made that play, the team would probably feed off my energy and I just wanted to keep it going.”
Mizzou guard Jarron “Boogie” Coleman left the game with an injury early into the half, leaving the Tigers without a key ball-handler and shooter, which made a big impact.
It seemed as though the life had been completely drained out of the Tigers, but they managed an 8-0 run towards the middle of the half to trim their deficit to 14 points. For a moment, it appeared as if maybe Mizzou had a comeback on the way.
Kansas City wasn’t giving in that easy though. Not with such a big feat on the line, still searching for its first win of the season. After losses at Minnesota and Iowa, the Roos (1-2) went on to pull off the upset, shocking the Tigers (1-1) on their home court in dramatic fashion.
“We were coming off two tough losses and we bounced back,” Nesbitt said. “I feel like you can never count us out, and that’s how we always play.”
What’s next for the Roos after the big win? A big victory means celebrating with an ice-cold treat.
“When we win on the road we get milkshakes,” Donlon said. “So they’re just excited that we’re gonna get some milkshakes tonight ... Hopefully Dairy Queen is still open because I like Blizzards. So it’s really not a milkshake, but we’ll see what’s open.”
This story was originally published November 15, 2021 at 9:05 PM.
