Missouri failed to stop Quinndary Weatherspoon, who had a career-high 29 points to lead Mississippi State to an 89-74 win over Mizzou. They also couldn’t stop Lamar Peters who had 23 points with a 7-of-11 showing on three-pointers for the Bulldogs. You know the ugly numbers for the Tigers. 11 losses in a row, 30 straight losses on the road and the team failed to put together two solid halves.
This was the fifth time in seven SEC games that the Tigers led at the half. Jordan Barnett and Jordan Geist each scored 18 points. Barnett led the Tigers in rebounding for the fifth time this season, grabbing eight boards.
Poor decision making and the inability to make shots hurt Mizzou in the second half as they went nearly ten minutes into the second half without making a field goal. They started the second half 0-for-8.
The turning point in the game came with just over 16-minutes to play in the game. Weatherspoon hit a jumper to give Mississippi State their first lead of the game at 47-46. Instead of showing patience and poise, the Tigers come down the floor and Kevin Puryear launches a three-point attempt with 30 second left on the shot clock. He misses, Aric Holman hits a jumper the other way and the Tigers are down 49-46, prompting Kim Anderson to take a timeout to obviously use that as a coaching moment.
Out of the timeout and subsequent media break, Puryear goes 1-for-2 at the line, then turns the ball over and Weatherspoon knocks down another three, extending the Mississippi State lead to 52-47 and from that moment on, the Tigers were left scrambling and it only got worse.
“Obviously it was a tale of two halves,” said Missouri head coach Kim Anderson. “In the first half we did a good job of mixing our defenses and keeping them off-balanced. Then Weatherspoon and Peters took over and we had no answer. We knew coming in that Peters was dangerous off the ball screens. And we knew Weatherspoon was dangerous from anywhere.”