Missouri men’s basketball welcomed the Florida Gators into Mizzou Arena on a snowy Wednesday afternoon. The Tigers battled with the Gators before ultimately falling 66-65.
The Tigers struggled on the defensive side of the ball early, allowing the Gators to shoot 8-14 (57.1%) from 3-point range in the first half.
Missouri was able to adjust in the second half and held Florida’s leading scorer, senior guard Myreon Jones, scoreless after he knocked down five 3-pointers in the first half.
“We just have to keep [the Gators] off the line,” Missouri junior forward Kobe Brown said. “We have to beat them to the spot and make sure that they don’t take easy shots.”
Redshirt junior guard Jarron Coleman and junior guard DaJuan Gordon provided scoring for the Tigers as they each knocked down two 3-pointers and combined for 22 of Missouri’s 65 points.
Sophomore forward Ronnie DeGray III also recorded 13 points, including a layup to give Missouri a 65-62 lead with 37.5 seconds remaining.
Missouri faced foul trouble throughout the contest, committing 21 fouls, which gave the Gators 26 free-throw attempts.
“There’s no excuse for that,” Missouri head coach Cuonzo Martin said. “The officials are going to do their job, but we have to do ours and play smarter defensively.”
Florida senior guard Tyree Appleby led the Gators’ offense, finishing with 17 points and going 10-10 from the charity stripe. He made two game-winning free-throws with 7.9 seconds remaining.
After Appleby’s baskets, junior guard Amari Davis quickly pushed the ball up the court and pulled up for a mid-range jump shot before Florida sophomore forward Tuongthach Gatkek blocked it with 2.9 seconds remaining.
Missouri received one final opportunity following the block to win the game and called a timeout. Missouri could not execute a play to find Brown and instead, Coleman missed a game-winning 3-pointer from the corner.
“We were looking for Kobe,” Martin said. “We had Amari coming around to the rim and we had Boogie (Coleman) cutting to the corner.”
Missouri fell to 8-13 overall and 2-6 in conference play with the defeat.
Edited by Brandon Haynes | bhaynes@themaneater.com
