Missouri Tigers improve to 3-0 with win over Lindenwood, return to the court Tuesday

The Missouri Tigers had scored in the 90s through two games this season.

They didn’t quite reach that territory against Lindenwood Sunday night at Mizzou Arena, but they rattled the Mizzou Arena rims repeatedly with emphatic slams and lob-dunks en route to a comfortable 82-53 win over their visitors from the Ohio Valley Conference.

Kobe Brown led the Tigers with 15 points, nine rebounds, six assists and three steals. Noah Carter added 14 points and Nick Honor 11.

The Tigers appear to be playing loose, fun basketball and have a 3-0 record to show for it.

“We like to play with each other, we like to hang out together — it’s just fun basketball,” Brown said in the postgame TV interview. “... We don’t let any negative things affect us.”

That’s by design, as is the sharing of the basketball — MU recorded 22 assists to the Lions’ five — that left first-year Tigers coach Dennis Gates smiling at the final buzzer.

“That unselfishness, man,” Gates said on his postgame TV interview. “Guys are finding guys. ... We have to continue playing this kind of basketball.”

Missouri struggled to find its shot early Sunday evening, enabling Lindenwood — which got a game-high 19 points from senior guard Chris Childs — to keep things interesting throughout the first half.

Tre Gomillion’s lob-dunk off a feed from Isiaih Mosley pushed Missouri’s lead to eight, 24-16, at the under-8 media timeout. It reached 10 points right after that break on another Gomillion jam.

It was a similar pace through the rest of the opening half — the Lions drawing somewhat close on big baskets, but equally big moments by the Tigers keeping them at bay.

A pair of Carter dunks and back-to-back three-pointers by guard Honor gave Missouri its biggest lead of the night to that point — a 15-point advantage, 36-21 — at the 2:03 mark of the opening half.

It was 40-25 at halftime.

After halftime, three straight Lindenwood buckets, including a bucket-and-foul and uncontested three from the corner, nibbled into Missouri’s cozy cushion.

The Lions had gotten it down to single-digits, 47-38, and that had been an issue in each of MU’s first two games this season. But as also been the case this season, Mizzou was able to pull away when things got a little too close for comfort.

A thunderous dunk by Blue Valley High product Aidan Shaw on a Mosley feed highlighted a run that drove the Tigers’ advantage to 15 points, 56-41, with 11:31 remaining.

Brown drained a three-pointer with 7:45 to go to give Missouri its then-largest lead of the game, an 18-point edge at 66-48. It grew to 21, then 23 when Brown fed DeAndre Gholston for a layup.

Shaw dunked again and the rout was in full effect. Shaw made sure of that by finishing an alley-oop slam from Kaleb Brown soon after.

Gates was able to empty his bench toward the end of the game, and walk-on Ben Sternberg completed the scoring with an arcing three-pointer shot just shy of halfcourt at the buzzer.

Sunday’s game marked the second of a three in five days for the Tigers at Mizzou Arena. On Friday, they beat Penn 92-85 after opening the season last Monday with a 97-91 victory over Southern Indiana.

Mizzou is back in action Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Mizzou Arena, playing host to SIU-Edwardsville.

This story was originally published November 13, 2022 at 7:16 PM.