Missouri men’s basketball was unable to pick up its first SEC victory Saturday night in a game that almost included a second half comeback from the Tigers.
The Tigers historic losing streak continued with the 78-74 loss to the Ole Miss Rebels at Mizzou Arena. The Rebels have defeated the Tigers in both of the teams meetings this season in SEC conference play.
A second half where the Tigers outscore the Rebels 45-31 wasn’t enough to battle back from a nineteen point halftime deficit. The first half contained game trends of which have been all too familiar for the Tigers this season.
Ole Miss guard Matthew Murrell scored 21 points to lead the Rebels, scoring five of his eleven field goals from beyond the three-point arch.
The Tigers (8-21, 0-16 SEC) hit a rough patch following the 13:38 mark in the first half. A 15-13 lead for the Tigers quickly turned the Rebels’ way. Ole Miss (20-9, 7-9 SEC) went on a 22-3 run which coincided with an eight minute stretch without a field goal for Missouri. Tamar Bates eventually stopped the drought with 2:57 left in the first half on a layup.
“We just have to watch the film to see what the reasons (for the drought) were tonight, but it’s all different reasons, one way or another,” Missouri coach Dennis Gates said. “One thing I can tell you is we didn’t get to the foul line until the four minute mark I believe in the first half.”
The Tigers committed 11 turnovers by the end of the first half. Ole Miss found themselves up 45-26 at the break, with three players having ten or more points. The Tigers finished the first half with Sean East having 13 points and the rest of the squad combining for the same amount.
The Tigers started the second half off strong, with the Rebels’ 19 point lead cut to 12 by the 12:26 mark. Anthony Robinson and Aidan Shaw combined for four buckets in the first four minutes of the half and Mabor Majak chipped in a bucket of his own for his third field goal of the season.
Mizzou continued cutting into the Rebel lead, cutting the deficit to below ten points with a little over five minutes to go. This was spurred by an 8-0 run that began at the 6:02 minute mark and lasted until the 4:11 mark of the second half.
East was at the forefront of the Missouri offense with a team-leading 27 points in the game, and also added three assists. The second half was led by other members of the team. Aidan Shaw contributed mightily, scoring 11 of his 13 points in the second stanza.
“You saw a glimpse of Aidan Shaw, especially on that fast break dunk,” Gates said. “He definitely earned (the start), and what I’m happy to see is nine rebounds. He was able to get around the basket and use his athleticism.”
After a dunk at the 6:18 minute mark from Moussa Cisse, the Rebels then went without a field goal until less than a minute remaining. By that time, the Tigers had cut the lead to three points.
Ole Miss ended their field goal drought on a layup with less than a minute remaining by Jaemyn Brakefield, pushingthe Rebels lead to five. Nick Honor was fouled the next possession behind the three point line and nailed all of his foul shots to drop the lead to two.
Brakefield then hit two more clutch free throws that extended the Rebels lead to six at 80-74 and ended up being enough for the Rebels to hold on for the victory.
I’ve been doing this long enough to know when a team has a culture and there’ll be brighter days ahead in terms of the win-loss record here at Missouri, no doubt about it,” Ole Miss coach Chris Beard said. “(Missouri’s) got a lot of fight and they’ve been in every game.”
Missouri will look to bounce back next Tuesday at 8:00 p.m at Mizzou Arena. They’ll host No. 11 Auburn (22-7, 11-5 SEC) who are coming off a 78-63 victory against Mississippi State.