How Missouri Tigers basketball shook off a two-game slide and beat Alabama State
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Missouri snapped a two-game skid, beating Alabama State 85-77 at Mizzou Arena.
- Tigers shot 65% overall, hit 8 of 16 threes and out-rebounded Hornets 28-24.
- Jacob Crews led with 20 points on 6-of-8 threes; Robinson, Mitchell, Mack also scored.
The Missouri Tigers men’s basketball team snapped a two-game skid on Thursday evening at Mizzou Arena in Columbia, beating Alabama State 85-77.
This one was all (or at least mostly) Mizzou from the opening tip. At the under-12 timeout, the Tigers (9-2) led 25-12 and were shooting 77% as a team.
They finished the night shooting at 65% clip. They out-rebounded the visiting Hornets 28 to 24. And they were 8 of 16 from 3-point range as a team.
Jacob Crews was the Tigers’ sharpshooter Thursday, sinking 6 of his 8 shots from distance. The senior guard finished with a game-high 20 points.
Three other Mizzou players also reached double-figure scoring: junior guard Anthony Robinson II had 19 points, senior guard Mark Mitchell 15 and junior guard Sebastian Mack 10.
Alabama State’s Asjon Anderson led all scorers with 23. The senior guard was followed on the scoresheet by Damarian Yates (13), Tyler Byrd (11) and Micah Simpson (10).
For Mizzou, the midweek non-conference clash at home was a prime get-right opportunity. Head coach Dennis Gates’ Tigers were coming off back-to-back losses: on the road to Notre Dame; and at Kansas City’s T-Mobile Center against Kansas in last weekend’s Border War game.
Mitchell had 13 points by halftime Thursday. Crews had 12 and Mizzou led 52-39 at intermission. The Tigers shot 71% from the field in the first half while Alabama State shot 50%. MU had out-rebounded its guests 15-8 to that point.
The Tigers’ first-half lead swelled to 17 points, but the Hornets hung around in the second half. They got MU’s lead down to nine points (63-54) at the 11:56 mark, and that’s about where the margin stayed for the rest of the night.
Missouri returns to action on Sunday, playing host to Bethune-Cookman in a 1 p.m. tipoff at Mizzou Arena. After that comes the annual Braggin’ Rights game against Illinois at St. Louis’ Enterprise Center on Dec. 22 (tipoff: 7 p.m.).
Those are the Tigers’ final games before Southeastern Conference play begins in the new year with a Jan. 3 league opener against the Florida Gators at Mizzou Arena (tipoff: 7:30 p.m.).