Mizzou basketball spreads the ball in 88-67 season-opening win
It wasn’t the prettiest game Mizzou has played. But the Tigers opened the season with an 88-67 win at Howard, led by a well-spread offense in Washington, D.C. on Monday.
Shawn Phillips led the way for Mizzou. The Tigers’ new 7-footer poured in a double-double of 16 points and 11 rebounds, while shooting 8-of-9 from the field.
“My hats off to Shawn,” Missouri coach Dennis Gates said on the Tiger radio broadcast after the game. “I told him to stay out of foul trouble and be prepared to play. There’s no one out there like him in Division I. I think we have a gift, a guy that plays the right way, very unselfish and he’s a team-first guy.”
His contributions helped a dominant day in the paint as Mizzou outscored Howard by 30 close to the basket.
Jayden Stone and Jacob Crews joined Phillips in double figures with 13 and 10 points, respectively. While Sebastian Mack, Mark Mitchell and T.O. Barrett all added nine points.
Attacking the basket
The Tigers attacked the paint early on, taking advantage of a severe size mismatch against the Bison.
Mack got the scoring started with a driving layup, then the Tigers forced the ball to Phillips again and again.
After scoring their first eight points in the interior, the Tigers started to hit from beyond the arc as well as Jevon Porter splashed a 3 to make it 11-5 early on.
A 12-2 Tiger run quickly expanded the lead to 23-9 and the Tigers built to their biggest lead of the first half after a Phillips layup made it 39-19 with 3:56 left before the break.
The Tigers hit three free throws in the final two minutes to take a 42-26 lead into the break.
“I thought it was a great, great game,” Gates said. “Our guys really, really went out and played in a tough environment.”
Allowing Howard back in the game
Out of the break, the Tigers built back to a 20-point lead with a Mack layup and a Phillips jumper, but Howard began to chip away with consecutive 3-pointers.
Bryce Harris and Alex Cotton combined to cut the Tiger lead to 53-43 with 13:41 left, then another Harris 3 got the Bison within 10 points for the first time in the second half with 12:38 left to play.
Pulling away
The Tigers didn’t let it stand for long as Crews hit a 3, Phillips threw down a dunk and Ant Robinson hit his lone shot from the field, a 3 from the left wing, to extend to a 63-48 lead.
After a 9-0 Tiger run quickly after, Mizzou led 72-51 and held onto at least a 16-point advantage the rest of the way.
“We have some guys with great experience and we’re just going to continue to make sure that they put themselves in a great situation to go out and perform,” Gates said.
Stats
Missouri shot 34-of-61 (55.7 percent) from the field, including 10-of-19 (52.6 percent) from 3. But the Tigers shot just 10-of-21 (47.6 percent) from the free-throw line.
Howard shot 22-of-62 (35.5 percent) overall, 12-of-29 (41.4 percent) from beyond the arc and 11-of-16 (68.8 percent) from the stripe.
Mizzou won the rebounding battle 47-28, including a 16-10 advantage in offensive rebounds.
The Tigers led for 38:43 out of 40 minutes, and scored 39 bench points. Mizzou led the battle for points in the paint 46-16.
Injuries
The Tigers played without junior forward Trent Pierce and sophomore guard Annor Boateng, both because of lower-body injuries. The team announced the absences before the start of the game. There was no extra information given.
Redshirt center Trent Burns is continuing his return-to-play protocol from an injury suffered early in the fall.
Up next
Mizzou (1-0) will return to Mizzou Arena for a stretch of seven consecutive home games. That home stand will begin with a matchup against SEMO at 7 p.m. Friday.
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