Missouri Tigers men’s basketball storms back in second half and beats SMU in overtime
The Missouri men’s basketball team overcame a 13-point deficit to defeat SMU in overtime, 80-75, in its first game of the Jacksonville Classic on Sunday at UNF Arena.
Forward Kobe Brown led the Tigers in scoring with a career-high 24 points, along with five rebounds. Guard Ronnie DeGray III had 18 points and DaJuan Gordon had 14, with both playing a crucial role to put the Tigers back in the game late.
Mizzou shot 51.9% in the second half, including a 5-of-10 mark from beyond the arc, to give itself a chance after a horrid offensive display in the opening frame.
“The resiliency of a team is a beautiful thing to watch,” Mizzou coach Cuonzo Martin told The Star after the game.
The Tigers came out with an incredible defensive effort to start the game and managed to hold their opponent scoreless for nearly the first four minutes of action. The Mustangs didn’t score a field goal until the 13:21 minute mark of the first half.
But SMU finally found its groove towards the end of the frame and the Tigers’ offensive woes caught up to them.
Guard Kendric Davis waltzed his way around the defense and drained a smooth mid range jumper to give the Mustangs their first lead at 19-18 with 2:33 left in the first half.
At that point, the Tigers hadn’t scored in nearly five minutes, their seven-point lead evaporated. They went scoreless for the final 7:19 of the half, allowing the Mustangs to go on an 18-0 run, and Mizzou entered halftime down 29-18. Mizzou made just 7 of 33 shots from the field and failed to reach 25 points in the first half for the third consecutive game.
The Tigers showed spurts of life on offense throughout the second half but they struggled to sustain significant runs. Until late, that is. When it mattered most, the Tigers stepped up.
“Our guys, you’re down 12 points, 13 points, they stayed resilient, they stayed committed to the cause,” Martin said. “And we found a way to get a win against a tough, experienced team.”
Mizzou brought the game close at several different instances across the final five minutes, eventually sending the game to overtime. Gordon drained a three-pointer off an assist from Jarron “Boogie” Coleman to shorten his team’s deficit to 58-55 with 3:22 remaining. Gordon tied the score a few minutes later on an old-fashioned three-point play, 62-62 with 29 seconds remaining.
“That’s just me getting used to playing with new guys,” said Gordon, a transfer from Kansas State. “...Just me getting comfortable with playing with them and them knowing my strengths and me knowing their strengths and just me being comfortable. So the second half, I felt comfortable and tried to make things work.”
With all the momentum in its favor, Mizzou scored the first points of overtime and felt largely in control for the extra period. Brown drained a three-pointer and guard Amari Davis had a putback bucket to build the lead.
“That’s a great win,” Coleman said. “We still got a new team, still learning how to play together, and for us to get to comeback win early, it’s a great confidence boost for us in just knowing what we can potentially be and just trying to put together a 40 minutes to just be the best we can.”
The Tigers will face Florida State, which beat Loyola Marymount 73-45, at 7:30 p.m. Central time Monday in the championship game.
“They’re one of the toughest teams in America to go against because they switch one through five,” Martin said of the Seminoles. “They don’t give any ball screen looks, so it becomes a lot of one on one basketball. So you got to be consistent from start to finish, to make plays, to be resilient, to stay focused, because it gets to you mentally and they get into your legs because they don’t give a lot of clean looks.”
This story was originally published November 21, 2021 at 9:46 PM.
