‘We can fight against anyone’: How Mizzou Tigers came back for overtime win vs. SMU
There wasn’t a run that changed everything or a play that shifted the momentum in a whirl.
It wasn’t a furious comeback that took the breath out of the opponent all at once.
Rather, the Missouri men’s basketball team’s effort took time and patience as it chipped away at SMU’s 13-point lead Sunday night.
And, eventually, with 30.7 seconds left in regulation, the Tigers tied the score. They would go on to win in overtime, 80-75.
“Definitely a relief,” said forward Kobe Brown, who scored a career-high 24 points. “We came together as a team in the locker room at halftime and during the game just came together, told each other we have to keep fighting, keep fighting, keep fighting. And it paid off. We just had to come together as a team and work as one.”
Mizzou entered halftime trailing the Mustangs 29-18 after failing to score for the last seven-plus minutes of the first half. Still, as coach Cuonzo Martin looked around the locker room, a group that includes eight new additions and is still learning to mesh, he saw fight.
“Oftentimes as a coach, you do this for a long time, even as a player in the locker room, you can see eyes — you can see the glaze in some guys’ eyes,” Martin said. “I don’t see that with these guys.”
Martin told his players that they needed to try their best “to win and lose the way we know how to.” That means defending, rebounding and playing as hard as possible while sharing the basketball and playing connected on offense, whether the shots were falling. He needed them to play as one.
The Tigers stepped back onto the court and scored the first five points of the second half on a jumper in the paint from Jarron “Boogie” Coleman and a three-pointer from Brown, cutting SMU’s lead to 29-23.
But this comeback wasn’t going to be that simple. That would’ve been too easy, right? The Mustangs went on a 7-0 run, and in less than two minutes they had extended their lead to 13, the largest of the game to that point.
The Tigers wouldn’t be able to cut their deficit that low again until some 12 minutes later, behind the efforts of Ronnie DeGray III, a 6-foot-6 transfer from UMass. The sophomore had a stretch where he scored nine consecutive points, draining a three-pointer, an and-one layup and another triple, which brought the score to 54-50 with 4:51 left.
Though Mizzou connected on seven of its 10 shots across the last six minutes of regulation, the deficit teetered once DeGray trimmed it, ballooning back up to seven, then six, then five, then back to six points. Missouri kept clawing away though.
“I just have confidence in my team,” Coleman said. “I feel like we can win any game, as long as we play our basketball, play hard, defend, and get great shots on offense. We’re a good defensive team and I feel like that right there can lead to a lot of wins. Just getting the offense together is what the main goal is.”
During timeouts, Martin and his coaching staff implored players to stay focused and locked in on every possession. They also made tweaks on offense, hoping to play some switches into their favor. They tried to put whoever was playing the five spot for SMU in situations where he had to guard Brown or Ronnie DeGray III.
“Either they were setting the ball screen or they were coming off the ball screens, or in some cases we put Ronnie in the corner where the big had to help him to make a decision,” Martin said. “So it didn’t matter who had the ball for us offensively on the perimeter. All it came down to, we tried to put that big guy in a situation to make a decision.”
Once Brown and DeGray started making shots — they combined to shoot 5-of-9 from deep on the evening — it changed how the Mustangs had to play defense.
“Because what happens, when the guards drove to the basket, if you didn’t help, they would make shots. If you help, they would find the big guys and shoot the ball,” Martin told The Star. “It just changed the game.”
That came into full effect down the stretch. With under three minutes left, guard DaJuan “Quaye” Gordon took a handoff from Coleman at the top of the arc and DeGray set a screen. Gordon turned the corner and began to drive toward the basket while SMU’s Marcus Weathers stood between him and DeGray, now beyond the three-point line, hesitating to make a decision. Gordon then used a nice spin move to navigate around the sole defender in front of him inside the paint, scoring a smooth layup to bring Mizzou within three.
Guard Kendric Davis weaved like a magician past solid defense to score on the Mustangs’ next trip down the floor, but Brown answered. After the Tigers passed back and forth looking for a quality shot, he set a screen for Coleman just inside the arc. As two defenders collapsed on the guard, Brown found himself with a sliver of open space beyond the three-point line, but instead of going right for the dagger with a defender recovering, the junior dribble-faked and stepped into a mid-range jumper. He had made it a 62-59 game with 1:50 left.
Nearly a minute and a half later, Brown grabbed a defensive rebound and started a fast break with a pass to Coleman, who then found a sprinting Gordon in the paint. The Kansas State transfer, who went on to finish with 14 points, scored an and-one bucket, finally tying the score at 62-62 with 30.7 seconds left.
There was plenty of time for SMU to find a shot on its last possession of regulation, but Mizzou wasn’t letting that happen as DeGray drew a charge inside the paint in the final seconds.
Once overtime rolled around, the Tigers had fully found their groove and they weren’t letting the opportunity slip away. They outscored the Mustangs 18-13 in the extra period, completing the comeback effort and showing remarkable grit.
“Now that we know we can fight and come back against a team like that,” Brown said, “We can fight against anyone.”
This story was originally published November 22, 2021 at 9:24 AM.
