No. 22 Missouri Tigers need to find better shooting Saturday vs. ranked Ole Miss
The No. 22-ranked Missouri Tigers and No. 16 Ole Miss Rebels meet Saturday at 5 p.m. inside Mizzou Arena with something unfortunate in common.
Both nationally ranked men’s basketball teams are coming off stunning losses.
The Tigers fell 61-53 to Texas on Tuesday at the Moody Center in Austin. Missouri (15-4, 4-2 Southeastern Conference) and the Longhorns (13-6, 2-4) shot a combined 32 for 98 from the field and 8 for 42 from 3-point range.
The Tigers shot 15-of-48 from the field and 4-for-22 from deep, while the Longhorns finished 17-of-50 and 4-of-20 in those categories, respectively.
Both teams got off to a slow start, with Texas holding a 7-6 advantage with 9:55 remaining in the opening frame.
“We played a heck of a defensive game,” MU coach Dennis Gates said Wednesday on a “Tiger Talk” show broadcast live from Harpo’s in Columbia. “I don’t think I’ve ever been a part of a first 10 minutes of a game score that looked like a tough and difficult football game.”
The Tigers were behind the Longhorns in multiple key statistical categories, including rebounding, second-chance points and free-throws.
Texas outrebounded Mizzou 39-31 while scoring 20 second-chance points to MU’s four. The Longhorns went 23-for-30 from the charity stripe, besting Missouri’s 19-for-27 output.
“It was just one of those juggernaut games that exist every once in a while, where you see two teams just nip (and) tuck, playing a game of tug-of-war,” Gates said.
Although Gates was referring to the Tigers’ loss to Texas, the same sentiment can be applied to the closing stretch of the Rebels’ 63-62 loss to No. 13 Texas A&M on Wednesday at the Pavilion at Ole Miss in Oxford, Mississippi.
In the bout between Ole Miss and the Aggies, the Rebels held the advantage for most of the night and led by as many as 11 points (39-28) with 17:02 remaining in the second half.
Texas A&M scrapped and clawed its way back into the game, trailing 41-40 with 11:05 remaining and 52-50 with 6:34 left.
The Aggies (15-4, 4-2) never gave up, igniting an 11-2 scoring surge and holding Ole Miss (15-4, 4-2) to zero field goals made in the last 3:49 of game time.
Texas A&M’s Manny Obaseki drilled a game-winning 3 from the right wing with 12.5 seconds left to wrap up the run and give the Aggies their only lead of the contest.
Rebels senior guards Sean Pedulla (14.3 points), Jaylen Murray (11.8) and Matthew Murrell (11.3) join senior forward Jaemyn Brakefield (10.2) in averaging double-digit scoring for the team throughout the 2024-25 season.
“(Rebels coach) Chris Beard has his guys playing, and they did a great job identifying players in the portal,” Gates said. “We have a day in recovery ahead of them. Obviously, having them travel (Thursday) is gonna be important to us making sure we’re taking care of our business as well.”
The Tigers also have four players averaging double figures, as junior guard/forward Mark Mitchell (13.4), senior guard Tamar Bates (12.8), graduate guard Caleb Grill (12.1) and sophomore guard Anthony Robinson II (10.3) produce most of the Columbia squad’s offensive output this season.
The quartet of scoring production was absent in Mizzou’s loss to Texas, with Bates being the only player on the team to crack double digits with 10 points.
“No one really caught rhythm in the right way,” Gates said. “That’s ultimately what we got to get back to: just making sure that we’re playing our style of basketball.”
MU is projected to defeat the Rebels 73-72 and holds a 52% chance of victory, according to KenPom’s record projections.
ESPN’s matchup predictor gives Mizzou, which is unbeaten at home this season, a 52.5% win probability, per ESPN Analytics.
Missouri is entering the heart of its SEC schedule that features four straight clashes with teams ranked in The Associated Press Top 25 poll (Ole Miss, No. 14 Mississippi State on Feb. 1, No. 6 Tennessee on Feb. 5 and Texas A&M on Feb. 8).
With the impending slate of ranked clashes, Mitchell was asked by Mike Kelly on “Tiger Talk” about the message he would give his teammates as they prepare for the Rebels coming off the road loss to the Longhorns.
“Just know that the world’s not falling. We lost one game,” Mitchell said. “We’re in the SEC, (the) best conference in the country, (and my advice is) just to get back to work, get back to what we’ve been doing.”
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