December 4, 2021

By Jake Durbin

Photo by Marie Prindiville

Like many other teams in the country, Missouri men’s basketball spent the week of Thanksgiving on the road playing in an early-season invitational tournament.

The results? Much like the rest of the Tigers’ year so far, it was quite a mixed bag.

After grinding out a win against Northern Illinois at home the previous Thursday, the team traveled away from the confines of Mizzou Arena for the first time this season, flying south to play in the Jacksonville Classic in Florida.

Missouri opened their action on Sunday, Nov. 21 when it took the court against Southern Methodist University. The Mustangs entered the contest with a 3-1 record, with their only defeat  at the hands of the previously- AP Top 25 Oregon Ducks. 

The Tigers came out firing, eventually opening up an 18-11 advantage with around seven minutes remaining in the first half after junior forward Kobe Brown got off to a great start.

Then, Missouri hit a wall.

SMU completely seized control of the game for the latter half of the opening period, shutting down the Tigers on offense and closing with an 18-0 run on the offensive end, leaving Missouri down 29-18 at the intermission.

The beginning of the second half didn’t look much better, with Missouri falling behind by as much as 13.

But despite the fading momentum, Missouri hung strong and started a comeback led by impressive nights from both Brown and junior guard DaJuan Gordon.

With just under two minutes left in the game, Brown nailed a clutch jumper to bring the lead within a single possession. Moments later, he found Gordon under the basket for a critical and-1 basket to square the game at 62 apiece, sending the game into overtime.

Despite the best efforts of SMU senior guard Kendric Davis, who scored or assisted on all but just one of the Mustangs’ points in OT, the Tigers pulled out an impressive 80-75 win in what was certainly their most complete performance of the season.

Brown finished the game with a career-high 24 points on 8-15 shooting, while sophomore forward Ronnie DeGray III added 18 off the bench. Gordon and junior guard Amari Davis added 14 each. Kendric Davis finished with an impressive 29 points for SMU.

The momentum would be short-lived, however, as Missouri fell flat against Florida State University just one day later, losing 81-58.

The Seminoles shut down the Tigers’ offense from the opening tip to the final buzzer, holding Missouri to just 38% from the field and 27% from 3-point land as a team. Meanwhile, Florida State, which had 4 of its players score in double figures, shot 61% and 42% from deep. The Tigers did not lead once during the entirety of the 40 minute game.

After finishing 1-1 with a runner-up result in the inaugural Jacksonville Classic, Missouri returned home for its first true out-of-conference battle against Wichita State University,

but yet again came up short.

Although the Tigers fared even worse from the field than in their previous bout against FSU, solid team defense and a nice performance from Amari Davis kept the game competitive. Missouri forced 18 Wichita State turnovers, while Davis had a season-high 17 points on 54% shooting.

However, it simply wasn’t enough. Led by sophomore standout guard Tyson Etienne, who finished the game with 18 points, 5 boards and 2 steals, the Shockers defeated Missouri at home 61-55.

Now with a record of 4-3 following a blowout 91-59 win over Paul Quinn College, Missouri will travel to Lynchburg, Virginia to play its first non-tournament road game of the season against Liberty University on Thurs., Dec. 2.

Edited by Riley Gearhart | rgearhart@themaneater.com