The Tigers were able to hold SEC scoring leader Mark Sears in check, but failed to secure their first victory in conference play
Missouri basketball’s first conference win of the season will still have to wait. The Tigers dropped their fourth game in SEC action, falling to the Alabama Crimson Tide 93-75 inside of Coleman Coliseum on January 16th.
“For the first 32-plus minutes it was going back and forth,” Missouri head coach Dennis Gates said. “But in that second half, we weren’t able to get the lead. I thought we had multiple opportunities to do so.”
The Tigers were no match for Alabama’s prolific offense, which averaged the fourth-most points per game in the country heading into the contest. The Tide shot 52% from the field, converting on 13 of their 27 attempts from three. Junior Tamar Bates and graduate student Nick Honor did their best to keep the game close for the Tigers, leading Missouri with 19 and 18 points, respectively.
Although Missouri held the SEC leading scorer senior Mark Sears to a season-low nine points, the Tigers’ defense was no match for Alabama sophomore Rylan Griffen and graduate student Aaron Estrada, both of whom scored 21.
“Sears played a great game but other guys stepped up,” Gates said. “When you look at Rylan Griffen, he stepped up, When you look at Estrada, they stepped up and made some tough plays.”
The Missouri offense opened the game with a dream start. The Tigers began the game shooting 5/5 from the field and were up 10-8 at the under-16 timeout. However, this was the last lead that they would enjoy the rest of the way.
The next 4:56 saw a polar opposite stretch for Missouri. The Tigers missed all six of their shots, allowing Alabama to take a 16-10 lead at the 12-minute mark.
The Crimson Tide would stretch the lead to 11 over the next seven minutes, leading 33-22 at the under-four timeout. But after the break, the Tigers seemed to have figured it out. Gates’ team closed the half on a 12-3 run, forcing three turnovers throughout the stretch.
“Our guys were able to fight in the last three minutes to go into halftime,” Gates said. “That was a tremendous thing, to go into halftime down two.”
Neither team could create much separation between one another early in the second half. Both squads traded baskets back and forth for the first six minutes, with Missouri cutting the lead to one after Alabama senior Grant Nelson was hit with a technical foul for taunting Missouri freshman Anthony Robinson II.
The Crimson Tide answered the technical foul by going on a 7-0 run to put themselves up 55-47 with 12:22 remaining in the half.
Although Missouri was able to stay within striking distance over the next few minutes, Alabama was still seemingly in full control of the game. With 3:35 to go in the game, Griffen hit his second of two consecutive threes, with the latter being a step-back over graduate Sean East II to extend Alabama’s lead to 13 and put any hope for a Missouri comeback to rest.
Joining Bates and Honor in double figures for Missouri were graduate student Noah Carter and senior Jesus Carralero Martin. Carter scored 13, and Carralero added 10 — his most as a Tiger.
“Jesus has been playing tremendous basketball off the bench,” Gates said. “When we’re at 100 percent and we have depth, we have multiple guys coming off the bench with the ability to score in double digits, Jesus provides that.”
Along with their scoring dominance, Alabama was also a force on the glass. The Tide outrebounded Missouri 35-23 on the night, not allowing the Tigers to register a single defensive rebound in the last 11 minutes and 30 seconds of the half.
“A couple of those rebounds just didn’t bounce our way,” Honor said.
The loss dropped Missouri to 8-9 on the season and 0-4 in SEC play.
Edited by Quentin Corpuel | qcorpuel@themaneater.com
Copy edited by Sterling Sewell | ssewell@themaneater.com
Edited by Sophie Rentschler | srentschler@themaneater.com