Mizzou basketball blows out Incarnate Word to begin season

Mizzou basketball took the floor for the first time in the 2019-20 season, and the Tigers delivered a dominating win as expected.

The Mizzou basketball team showed up and handled business in its first game of the 2019 season Wednesday night at Mizzou Arena.

Mizzou dominated Incarnate Word from start to finish and took home an 82-42 victory. The Tigers’ 40-point victory easily outpointed the 27-point spread for the night, and Mizzou clearly was the better team.

Jeremiah Tilmon dominated as expected. The junior looks to take his game to another level this season, and the first game of the year was a good way to start. Tilmon is expected to be the go-to guy for this year’s Tigers team, and Wednesday, that’s what he was.

He finished the game with 16 points and seven rebounds. Tilmon continued to take advantage inside throughout the contest. Where the Tigers want to improve is outside, and against Incarnate Word, Mizzou wanted to get its opportunities. The Tigers were able to accomplish that for the most part, but they didn’t take advantage of it.

As a team, Mizzou finished 7 of 31 for a 22 percent rate, not nearly as good as it wants to be. Torrence Watson and Kobe Brown each knocked down a pair of triples, but that’s something the Tigers will work on over the course of the year. Tilmon definitely did what he should have in the paint for the Tigers, but I’ll go with Xavier Pinson as the player of the game. He controlled the game with his intense play coming off the bench.

In 17 minutes of play, Pinson picked up 15 points and five assists to lead Mizzou. The result wasn’t surprising, but Pinson’s play was encouraging Wednesday night.

Freshman Marion McKinney provided the highlight of the night, finishing off a put-back with a slam dunk toward the end of the game.

Mizzou now moves on with a 1-0 record to Friday night to take on Northern Kentucky. Another win there is expected before next week’s clash at No. 19 Xavier, and that’s when the fun begins.