Missouri opened the game with a huge run. It sparked latest men’s basketball win
Eight minutes, 59 seconds.
That’s how long it took Cleveland State to get on the board against the Mizzou basketball team Friday in Columbia.
The Vikings went 0-for-11 on their opening field goal attempts. Even when they scored their first points, the Tigers had already climbed far enough away in the 86-59 win at Mizzou Arena.
Mizzou opened the game on a 23-0 run before Cleveland State scored its first two points — from the free-throw line. The Tigers shot 8-for-13 during that stretch.
“Just getting out to that lead is good,” Sebastian Mack, who finished with 10 points, said. “... And then I felt like we did a good job at maintaining it through the whole way of the game.”
Ten of 11 Tigers who saw the floor scored Friday, led by a valuable contribution from Jacob Crews off the bench
“The reason why we got that lead is because we were playing hard and doing what we were supposed to do,” Crews said. “Obviously, we’ve got a really deep team.”
The Vikings managed cut the deficit below 20 a few times throughout, though Mizzou led by double digits from the 16:10 mark in the first half through the end of the game.
The Tigers led by 19-plus points for the entirety of the second half.
“I think we got a little comfortable with the lead and I think the coaches did a great job telling us to put our foot back on the gas and get back at it,” Crews said. “I think we did a great job executing that as well.”
Crews put up 20 points with eight rebounds, putting a cap on this one with a 3-point shot with seven seconds left. He went 4-for-10 from 3, 7-for-15 from the field.
There was much to like overall, but coach Dennis Gates saw one area for improvement postgame: the team’s assist-to-turnover ratio. The Tigers had 16 assists to 16 turnovers.
Missouri committed 11 turnovers in the second half.
“We got it even, but for a period of time it was negative,” Gates said. “And some of that comes down to our opponent. They did a great job in deflecting and showing the defensive tenacity that they did.”
Friday’s win may have been bittersweet for Gates, who began his head coaching career at Cleveland State.
Gates coached the Vikings from 2019-2022 before jumping to Mizzou. He was 50-40 at Cleveland State, coaching the team to a Horizon League tournament championship in 2021.
Cleveland State made its third ever NCAA Tournament appearance before falling to No. 2 seed Houston.
After Friday’s game, Gates reflected on being hired by the Vikings.
“(Former) president Harlan Sans and Scott Garrett (former Cleveland State athletic director), they put a sheet of paper toward me at the dinner that we had my last night interviewing,” Gates recalled. “I flipped it over and said, ‘Look, I’m making a decision not because of money. I’m making a decision because this is my passion. If you think I should be paid that, then cool. I accept the job.’ And they couldn’t believe it.
“I think too many times coaches make the decisions based on money and not fit,” Gates added. “I was able to learn more about myself than any stop I’ve ever had because I had a collaboration with an AD, a collaboration with the president.”
On the opposite end, former Mizzou assistant coach Rob Summers is in his first season at the helm of the Vikings.
Summers was previously an assistant for Gates in his stint at Cleveland State before joining Mizzou in 2024-25. With Summers as an assistant, Mizzou ranked ninth nationally in offense.
“I appreciate Coach Gates giving me the opportunity to come back to Columbia and go against his squad,” Summers said. “We knew it would be a tall task. ... I’m excited for our program, excited to continue to watch Mizzou. They are very, very, very talented and very, very, very big. I’m always going to be rooting for Coach Gates: He’s had a big impact on my life and he’s got a lifetime friend in me.”
Gates told media members postgame he has previously promised to sit in the news conference should he ever have the chance to coach against a former assistant.
On Friday, he kept his promise, crashing Summers’ press conference and taking a seat next to him at the podium.
“I was excited all day, sitting here and being able to prepare for someone so close to our program,” Gates said alongside Summers. “We wouldn’t be here as a staff without the contributions of our assistants and the success we had at Cleveland State.”
With Friday’s win, the Tigers now turn to a pair of power-conference opponents, their first such games since an early November win over Minnesota.
“You’re always competing against yourself,” Gates said. “No matter who you’re playing, there’s a style and outcome that you want. I just think that at the end of the day, we’ve been able to assimilate as a culture. We’ve been able to get to know each other. ... Time allows us to see the roles formulate in addition to the skill set.
“We know what we can do. We know our potential, we’ve just got to continue to get better week by week, day by day, and not be outcome-based and more so fall in love with the journey and the process of it.”
So where can the Tigers take their next steps?
“I think we have to continue to take care of the basketball,” Gates said, “but impressed with our ability to have a 2-point field-goal percentage that tops the country (56.8%) in addition to how we’ve shot the ball behind the 3-point line and our level of defense. I think our length gives us opportunities.”
The Tigers head to South Bend on Tuesday to face Notre Dame (5-3), which just went 1-2 at the Players Era tournament. Then the Border War is up next at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City.
This story was originally published November 28, 2025 at 3:42 PM.
