The basketball season for both the Mizzou men’s and women’s program came to an end on Saturday after the men lost to Oklahoma in the first round of the NCAA Tournament and the women lost in the WNIT. The Mizzou men have not won an NCAA tournament game since 2010.
Playing without their second leading scorer, OU leaned on Austin Reaves who scored 23 points, and Brady Manek who added 19 as Mizzou lost to the Sooners 72-68. Dru Smith made two contested three-pointers in the final minute to give the Tigers a chance, but Mizzou went over four minutes without a field goal down the stretch as the Sooner built an eight-point lead with less than two minutes to play.
Dru Smith finished with 22 points on 6-of-15 shooting including 6-of-11 from three-point range. Jeremiah Tilmon added 16 and Mark Smith finished with 11. Mark had a hot first half hitting all three of his long range attempts but only attempted three more shots in the second half.
Starting point guard Xavier Pinson played just 16 minutes, shooting 1-for-7 with five assists, a steal and two turnovers. Drew Buggs played 22 minutes and had three points, one assist, no steals and one turnover.
“We got a real flow, we got back in the game with Buggs and I thought Buggs did a great job on both sides of the basketball (court ),” said Cuonzo Martin after the game.
The Tigers jumped out to a 14-7 lead in the first 4:16 of the game, but out of the timeout went cold as OU surged to a 19-16 lead. The Tigers managed to close the first half up 27-26, but started slow in the second half. The Tigers were outscored 12-2 at the start as the Sooners lead 38-29, but the Tigers mounted another comeback 41-40 with just over 12 minutes to play. A Dru Smith three with 6:21 to play put the Tigers up again 55-54, but then Missouri went cold missing four straight three pointers to fall behind 67-59 with 1:58 to play and the Tigers couldn’t recover.
The Tigers finished the season 16-10.
The Mizzou women were playing in the WNIT and were guaranteed at least two games this weekend, but Robin Pingeton’s team lost both games and ends their season 9-13.
MU lost a fourth-quarter lead and fell to Fresno State (17-10, 12-6 MW), 78-75, in the first round of the Women’s National Invitational Tournament in Fort Worth, Texas on Friday. Mizzou led by as much as 20 with 5:14 left in the third quarter, but the Bulldogs outscored the Tigers 26-13 in the game’s final 10 minutes to take the win.
On Saturday, the Tigers lost to Arizona State 50-39, in the consolation round of the Women’s National Invitational Tournament on Saturday afternoon in Fort Worth, Texas. Mizzou and Arizona State were locked into a back-and-forth battle for much of three quarters before Arizona State pulled away in the fourth quarter, outscoring the Tigers, 17-10 in the game’s final 10 minutes.
