Hot start leads to 86-59 Mizzou win as coaches reunite
For the first time, Dennis Gates faced his former team. And with Cleveland State came former Mizzou associate head coach Rob Summers in his first year leading the Vikings.
But the reunion was much sweeter for Gates as the Tigers rolled to an 86-59 win at Mizzou Arena on Friday.
“My players, these guys, do a great job of dialing into the scouting reports and dialing into the process and the development,” Mizzou coach Dennis Gates said. “And the staff has to continue to do the same thing.”
Hot start
The Tigers jumped on the Vikings immediately.
Sebastian Mack opened the scoring with a 3-pointer at the 18:01 mark and Mizzou was off to the races. Shawn Phillips grabbed an offensive rebound and put it back with a dunk, then Jevon Porter hit a 3 and Mark Mitchell threw down a dunk off a Porter steal to make it 10-0.
The run continued when Mack hit a jumper, then Luke Northweather added a 3, Mitchell hit two free throws, Mack turned a steal into a layup then Mitchell hit two free throws to make it 21-0 with 13:02 left in the first half.
The run concluded with a Mitchell put-back dunk to make it 23-0.
“Getting out to that lead is good, but just bigger is maintaining it,” Mack said. “But I feel like we got away from it, but we also got back to it and then I feel like we did a good job.”
Cleveland State got on the board for the first time with a free throw at the 11:01 mark, then hit its first shot from the field with 10:13 left before the break.
“Obviously getting down 23 though, or whatever it was in those first 9 minutes, wasn’t something we planned on,” Summers said. “But I’m happy that our guys responded in a great way.”
But the Vikings were never able to chip away. The Tigers held at least a 20-point lead until the 6:07 mark, but took a 46-24 lead into halftime.
“They are very, very talented and very, very big,” Summers said.
Second half
The second half wasn’t quite as simple for the Tigers, but it didn’t have to be.
Mizzou maintained a 20-point lead or more through the first 8 minutes, and extended as far as a 25-point advantage after a Jacob Crews dunk off a T.O. Barrett steal.
The Tigers then extended to a 26-point lead after a Mack 3, then the final 8 minutes belonged to the youngsters.
In came Trent Burns and Annor Boateng to go with Nicholas Randall and Barrett. The lone upperclassmen on the floor for most of the final 8 minutes was Crews.
Mizzou maintained at least a 20-point advantage the rest of the way and finished with the largest lead of the day at 27 points.
“I have to be patient,” Gates said of only playing Burns 6 minutes. “Ultimately, you just want to throw a kid in. You got to understand, although he’s been in college two years, that’s his second game. So reps are important. Visualization, recovery and rest, things like that. This is the first time he’s able to go through what these guys have gone through, especially when it comes down to the physicality of it and then recovery from game to game.”
Stats
The Tigers had a well-distributed offense with Crews leading the way at 20 points. His extended minutes at the end of the game took a rough start to a solid finish as he ended 4-of-10 from 3 and 7-of-15 from the field along with eight rebounds.
Mack, Mitchell, Boateng and Northweather all ended with 10 points and Porter had nine.
Northweather, Mitchell and Porter all added six rebounds, Phillips had six points, five rebounds, three blocks and three assists and Mitchell led the Tigers with four assists.
Mizzou shot 32-of-67 (47.8 percent) overall, 11-of-38 (28.9 percent) from 3 and 11-of-13 (84.6 percent) from the free-throw line.
Cleveland State shot 21-of-57 (36.8 percent) from the field, 11-of-29 (37.9 percent) from 3 and 6-of-11 (54.5 percent) from the stripe.
Mizzou led 21-9 in points off turnovers, 47-26 in rebounds, 20-5 in second-chance points, 47-10 in bench points, 40-18 in points in the paint and 7-3 in blocked shots.
Up next
Mizzou (8-0) takes its undefeated start to the season on the road as it goes to face Notre Dame in the SEC/ACC Challenge on Tuesday.