Another poor shooting performance from the Missouri Tigers led to another road loss as the Tigers fell at Auburn 89-78. If Saturday after wasn’t bad enough, this was just a preview. Fans will get another dose on Wednesday night when these two teams meet up in the SEC Tournament.
“Hopefully we learned from this game,” said Kim Anderson. “Hopefully we learned that you’ve got to come out ready to play against these guys because they’re an explosive team and a very athletic team.”
Mizzou shot 22-of-64 and 38 of those attempts came from beyond the three point arc. Both inside and outside the three-point line, the Tigers shot 34%. The only thing that kept the score somewhat respectable (if an 11-point defeat is respectable) was the 21-of-26 performance at the free throw. Otherwise, this was a pretty lopsided game.
Auburn blocked nine of Missouri’s shot and not one Tiger made more than four shot attempts from the field. Jordan Geist had the best percentage going 4-for-8, but Kevin Puryear (4-14), Jordan Barnett (4-11), Terrence Phillips (4-11), and Frankie Hughes (3-10).
At one point, Auburn made 13 straight shot attempts. They were hitting in transition, pulling up hitting three’s, picking apart Mizzou’s interior, or stealing the ball at midcourt and going in for odd-man advantage layups.
“When a team is hitting shots like that, it deflates you,” Barnett said. “We just had to keep pushing. We responded well in the second half. We had nothing to lose at that point.”