Columbia, MO – Just minutes before tipoff between the visiting No. 4 Alabama Crimson Tide and the Missouri Tigers, Tigers’ senior star player Kobe Brown was ruled out of the contest due to an ankle injury. In the post-game press conference Mizzou head coach Dennis Gates said that it was his decision not to play Brown against “The number one team in the country, Alabama.”
Brown’s presence, or lack thereof, was definitely felt as the Tigers were, as Gates put it, “missing a lot of open shots.” Brown is the team’s leading scorer, and he led the team with 17 points in their previous game Wednesday when the Tigers took down No. 25 Arkansas at home.
Mizzou shot 32.9% from the field on 23 of 70 shots and shot only 10.7% from 3-point range on an abysmal 3 of 28 shots. The Tigers average 47.8% from the field and 33.3% from behind the arc this season, and the poor shooting was the kiss of death for the Tigers as they fell to No. 4 Alabama 85-64.
The Crimson Tide started hot, quickly gaining a 9-2 lead over the Tigers within the first few minutes of action. The game was starting to look like a blowout until senior guard Isiaih Mosley caught fire hitting two quick shots. Then, with some help on defense and a DeAndre Gholston mid-range shot, Mosley hit another bucket, and the Crimson Tide lead shrank to 11-10.
The Tigers and Tide went back and forth for the next few minutes, trading bucket for bucket before junior forward Noah Carter backed down Alabama forward Brandon Miller and hit a contested short-range shot to give the Tigers their first lead of the game at 21-20.
That would be the last time the Tigers would be ahead on the scoreboard for the rest of the game, as Alabama’s Rylan Griffin hit a 3-pointer to give the Tide a 27-24 lead. After that, Alabama never looked back.
By the time the horn sounded for halftime, the Tigers found themselves in a 10-point hole with Alabama up 38-28. At halftime, the Tigers had only made a single three-point shot on 12 attempts.
Many, including myself, believed that the Tigers would come out of halftime rejuvenated and ready to mount a comeback. This was not so, as Alabama started the second half hot, increasing the lead to 45-28. It was a wrap from there.
The Crimson Tide went on to make shot after shot, open corner three after open corner three, and drew fouls seemingly anytime they drove into the paint. The Tigers couldn’t contain Alabama, so much so that Gholston fouled out with four minutes left to play as Missouri trailed 72-56.
While the Tigers did in fact keep fighting the whole game, on several occasions firing up the 15,000-some-odd Tiger fans that packed out Mizzou Arena for yet another sell-out, the lead was too much to overcome. When the final buzzer sounded, the Tigers (14-5, 3-4) fell to the Crimson Tide (17-2, 7-0)
landing on the wrong side of an 85-64 affair.
Following the loss, the Tigers look to bounce back and will travel to Oxford, Mississippi to take on the Ole Miss Rebels. Gates and his team will have a tough game ahead of them, as ESPN’s indicator only gives the Tigers a 40.3% chance to win the game.