Coming into last night’s game against Minnesota, the Mizzou Tigers jumped out to a 3-0 start with an impressive opening week with wins over Howard, SEMO, and VMI.
Throughout the first three games of the young season, the Tigers have tended to get off to slow starts, and last night was no different.
To start the game, the Tigers got off to another slow start and found themselves down throughout nearly the whole first half.
At the eight-minute mark in the first half, the Tigers sat with just 12 points as they found themselves down by nine. Transfer forward Luke Northweather knocked down a big 3-point shot to cut into the Golden Gophers’ lead as the Tigers began to climb back into the game.
Despite entering halftime with a 32-30 lead, the Tigers looked poor defensively and were out-rebounded 24-11, including 10 offensive rebounds for the Gophers.
The second half started the exact same way as the half ended. The Gophers hung around for the first eight minutes of the second half as concerns were growing in Mizzou Arena.
That immediately changed as Mark Mitchell sparked a 14-0 Tiger run as they ran away with the game.
All throughout the second half, senior Jacob Crews put together an impressive 11 points on 3-for-4 shooting from behind the arc.
Mitchell and Stone both added 11 points, respectively, throughout the half as the Tigers put up an impressive 51 points to close out an 83-60 victory.
As it has been all season, this game was a tale of two halves for the Tigers. From getting out-rebounded by 13 in the first to winning the rebounding battle in the second, the Tigers came out with a different level of intensity in the second half.
The Tigers lit up the scoreboard in the second half on an impressive 18-for-26 shooting (69.2%) from the field. They were 6-for-10 from 3-point range.
Lastly, the Tigers began to force turnovers in the second half, and it immediately led to points as a slam dunk by T.O. Barrett put the exclamation point on an impressive Tiger second half.
The Tigers are back in action on Monday at Mizzou Arena as they host Prairie View A&M at 7 p.m.