Missouri Tigers Put Up Fight In Loss To Arizona, 72-53
By Derek Franks
The Missouri Tigers hung in there with a clearly superior team in a late afternoon affair in Lahana, Hawaii on Monday. But in the end, the No. 2 Arizona Wildcats proved too much for the young Tigers to handle.
Arizona was able to bear down late to close out the game to a 72-53 final in a game that was tighter than the scoreboard made it seem.
In the first round of the 2014 Maui Invitational, Missouri came in with a 2-1 record, having rebounded after a nightmarish opening loss to UMKC that had already left a sour taste in Tiger fans’ mouths.
Kim Anderson has his work cut out for him in 2014. But the Tigers learned some lessons in the Maui Invitational loss. Mandatory Credit: Dak Dillon-USA TODAY Sports
Arizona showed why they came into the game as a top national title contender and shut the Tigers down in the last part of the second half.
Mizzou looked sharp early, hitting their first three shot attempts and jumping out to a 7-0 lead, which had its traveling sun-baked fans in black and gold rowdy in the early moments. But Arizona tallied off 12 points in a row, putting the pressure back on MU, and was able to run the table without surrendering the lead for the remainder of the game.
While the Tigers showed some serious signs of life in this game, and was able to showcase some of its young talent, as the game wore on, the inexperience for Missouri reared its ugly head.
The difference, as it turned out, was turnovers. The stat sheet went like this: Mizzou: 17. Arizona: 6. In almost no scenario can a team win with a lopsided margin in that category. And this contest’s final score mirrored the turnover battle entirely.
Still, something can be said for the Tigers efforts. If one believes in moral victories in the world of sports, this game can certainly be called that. One of the SEC’s youngest teams battled back and forth, found a way to get its jump shots to fall and was able to stall Arizona each time it started to make somewhat of a big run.
Arizona– which went 5 for its final 8 three-point shot attempts– just found its touch in the late first half and never lost it. In the end, shots kept going in for the Wildcats and Mizzou couldn’t connect when it needed to.
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Two things Missouri must do better are completing its drives to the lane with made buckets (several short distance shots were off the mark), and pass the ball a lot more to try to set up teammates. This was a problem that plagued the Tigers all season long in 2013, and it did them in here as Arizona was able to double them up on the assist totals.
MU must also get a better game from its point guard, Will Clark, who went just 1/6 with 3 points and who missed a series of layups that could have kept Missouri in the game.
Missouri as a team shot a sub-par 16-44 from the field while its opponent went 24-55. The Tigers saw three players in double figures, including its leading scorer Montaue Gill-Caeser, who once again led the team with 13 points. But the team was no match for Wildcat star Brandon Ashley who tallied 15 of his own.
Arizona advances to play Kansas State on Tuesday for the invitational’s semi-final while Mizzou will play a consolation game the same day with Purdue.