Mizzou loses 82-61 to Purdue, will play for seventh place at Maui Invitational

Kim Anderson wore a microphone on his belt at the start of Missouri’s basketball game against Purdue on Tuesday at the Maui Invitational.

It was gone by halftime.

ESPN wanted to share the Missouri coach’s words with the world, but Anderson decided he didn’t have anything worth saying to a wider audience than his team on a day the Tigers appeared lifeless, losing 82-61 to Purdue in a consolation semifinal.

“I told the guy at halftime, ‘There is nothing that I am going to say that is television worthy,’” Anderson said. “Not that it was bad, or anything, it was just a situation where I needed to coach my team.

“I didn’t need to be on ESPN. They were seeing it live. They didn’t need to hear any commentary from me. It wouldn’t have been any better than the play.”

The Boilermakers, 4-1, raced to a 45-20 halftime advantage and led by as many as 34 in the second half.

“It wasn’t very good,” Anderson said. “The first half was embarrassing. We didn’t play very well.”

The Tigers, 2-3, had no answers for Raphael Davis, who led Purdue with 22 points, and A.J. Hammons, who scored 12 points.

While they hammered Missouri on the perimeter and inside, space opened up for their teammates. Ten different Purdue players found the bottom of the net.

Intensity was the biggest issue.

“We just weren’t all-the-way prepared,” Missouri guard Wes Clark said. “We thought that because they lost yesterday we didn’t have to bring as much effort as we needed to. We underestimated them.”

Purdue, which lost to K-State in the opening game of the Maui Invitational, took the opposite approach.

“We looked at the film yesterday and decided we didn’t play hard enough,” Purdue guard Jon Octeus said. “That is unacceptable.”

Johnathan Williams III led the Tigers with 14 points, while Keith Shamburger added 11 points. But it wasn’t nearly enough. Missouri fought back in the second half, pulling as close as 18, but Anderson downplayed the rally, saying both teams were “just hooping.”

A day after Anderson praised his team for its effort and fight in a 72-53 loss to No. 3 Arizona, he had much less to say after this outcome.

“Purdue, just, they did a great job,” Anderson said. “I thought they were much, much more aggressive than we were. I don’t think we came out with the same intensity level we did yesterday, which is disappointing because Purdue is a great basketball program and a good team.

“They came out more inspired than we did, and that shouldn’t happen, especially when you are playing in this type of situation.”

Anderson’s frustrations were, perhaps, best summed up in the first half when he watched Missouri players badly miss three consecutive shots and then fumble the ball out of bounds on the same possession. Without saying a word, Anderson raised his hands to his shoulders and requested a 30-second timeout. It took the officials several seconds to notice, but Anderson didn’t complain.

Purdue was on its way to a lopsided victory. Anderson didn’t have much to say about it.

Missouri will play host Chaminade for seventh place at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday on ESPNU. The Boilermakers will face BYU for fifth place.

“It is actually very big for us,” Clark said. “We are down a little bit on ourselves at this time. That is a little uncomfortable. It would be good to get back going and find ourselves and gain some confidence.”

This story was originally published November 25, 2014 at 2:07 PM with the headline "Mizzou loses 82-61 to Purdue, will play for seventh place at Maui Invitational."