The 25th ranked Missouri Tigers held off a fiesty Long Beach State basketball team for a 69-59 win Saturday evening at Mizzou Arena. It was the Tigers 26th win in a row at home, the longest current streak.
Jabari Brown helped fuel the win. He netted 22 points, playing all but one minute in the game. Brown picked up the slack for Jordan Clarkson who struggled.
“I feel like we are in a good position. We’ve been through a lot of close games and been through a lot of tough games like this one right here,” said Brown. “Our nonconference schedule has prepared us and I feel like we are getting better on both sides of the basketball.”
Clarkson, who leads the SEC with a 20-point average, scored just a season-low 11 points. Earnest Ross added 16 points and Ryan Rosburg had a career-high 11 rebounds.
“I think we started off terribly with rebounding off the glass. I think it was just a team effort to try and box out and get the rebounds. They were killing us. They had seven offensive rebounds in the first few minutes and that was unacceptable. I think it was all of us just boxing out.”
The Tigers (12-1) open Southeastern Conference play at home against Georgia on Wednesday.