On Monday evening, the Missouri Tigers secured their first winning streak in nearly a full calendar year, sneaking past Eastern Washington 84 to 77.
The Tigers led for a bulk of the game, but, yet again, the Eagles got back into the game late, trailing 70-68 with just under six minutes remaining.
Mizzou was unable to put the game away, struggling to contain Eastern Washington's offensive production. In the second half the Eagles seemingly did whatever they wanted with the ball, constantly attacking the hoop.
It was the inability to create offense via sets that was most concerning. Multiple times late in the game, the Tigers were bailed out by three-pointers, including a massive one by Caleb Grill to give his team a 75-70 lead with four minutes remaining.
Missed free throws and turnovers were the reason for the second half collapse against Memphis, and were nearly the cause for a collapse once again.
Grill hit a dagger from deep with just 1:17 remaining, extending the lead to 82-75. He finished the game with a career high 33 points, but Mizzou being unable to pull away was a major concern, once again.
The Tigers got started early with Grill going 4-for-5 from three-point range in the first half, resulting in him having 16 points at the break.
After the Eagles stormed out to a 12-4 lead early, Mizzou responded by viciously attacking the rim the remainder of the half.
Mark Mitchell, Marcus Allen, and Tony Perkins all got in on the action towards the end of the first half, seemingly taking part in their own dunk contest.
A strong defensive effort from Anthony Robinson, Peyton Marshall, and Allen helped Mizzou take a 45-33 lead into the locker room at halftime.
After going 3-for-23 from three-point range against Howard on Friday night, the Tigers came out firing, shooting 5-10 from beyond the arc in the first half.
The second half got off to a sluggish start with Mizzou unable to establish any sort of offensive rhythm.
With the Tigers in a scoring drought, the Eagles cut the lead to 58-51 coming out of the under 12 timeout.
Grill quickly put an end to that, starting a 6-0 run in just 28 seconds of game time with an and-one, followed by a Jacob Crews three-pointer. This gave Mizzou a 13 point lead with just over 11 minutes remaining in the game.
Mizzou will be back in action at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday night against Mississippi Valley State.