Mizzou can’t muster enough offense, fall in the Round of 64 to Miami
· Yahoo Sports
On Thursday afternoon, Mark Mitchell uttered the words: “The location can’t play for us.”
Enterprise Arena seemed to be sprouting black and gold in every area you looked but the crowd effect can only do so much to boost a team. Right out the gate, the Tigers appeared to be off its game plan. The Hurricanes brought a fast style of play that took too long for Jayden Stone and crew to piece together offensively.
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Not only did shots not seem to fall but space was limited for any special creation.
All season, Mizzou carved a niche in the paint with Mark Mitchell at the helm of the ship. Unfortunately for the squad, Miami not only shut down Mitchell but the Tigers only produced ten points in the paint over the course of the first half.
The black and gold couldn’t generate any form of offense in the area. Miami dominated the boards and it took a whopping 13 minutes for the Tigers to have an offensive rebound. The offense seemed lackluster, dull of its best form.
Eventually, Mizzou began to gather some rebounds but it wasn’t enough to garner a boost. In total, the Tigers only capitalized on two second chance points while Miami had nineteen with 46 total rebounds as well.
“It was evident what hurt us,” Gates said. “They ended the game with 19 second chance points, and we just couldn’t keep those guys off the board.”
Another tough stretch for Mizzou stemmed from star Mark Mitchell with it taking nearly 17 minutes for the forward to work his way onto the scoresheet.
“I was trying to get some pass out of the doubles early and things like that, but they built a wall that made it hard for me most of the game,” Mitchell said. “I couldn’t really get going there until late.”
While the scheme of shutting him down in the first twenty minutes proved effective, the forward gave it his all and turned to the three-point line. Hitting three of his own and forcing his way through the paint, the senior gave it his all to try to spur together any kind of momentum.
Working alongside Stone and Robinson, the trio just didn’t have an answer for Miami. It felt like a game of tug-of-war, each time the Tigers pulled an inch closer, the Hurricanes doubled down and dragged away.
Heading into the affair, Mitchell knew it would come down to the possessions and head coach Dennis Gates reinforced the idea in the postgame presser.
“I think one possession changes the season,” Gates said. “We had an opportunity to win a game on two shots against Arkansas at home, we were able to put our team in a position against Kentucky to take a late lead. Wasn’t able to hold on to it.”
At the end of the game, Miami finished with 1.212 points per possession, moving to 26-3 when scoring greater than one point per possession.
With ten minutes left to play it seemed the Tigers caught a second win to make the game interesting. Anthony Robinson II knocked down a three-pointer and the team marched down the court to force a turnover with Jayden Stone putting the cherry on top with and-one off a three.
The Tigers kept roaring and a pair of free throws from Trent Pierce and the ability to think over crowd noise was in the rearview. It was the first Mizzou advantage since a minute and a half into the game.
However, the Miami Hurricanes began to embody a “never say die” attitude, knocking down a few triples of their own to rip the lead away from Mizzou and the hopes of the Tiger faithful. For Miami, Tre Donaldson connected for a total of five three-pointers to put the Tigers to bed on Friday night, four of which were completed in the second half.
It reinforced the idea that Mizzou can’t rely on second half energy bursts to bring them towards victory, it needs a full forty.
“It was the tale of two different halves,” Gates said. “We responded. We took the lead in the middle-end of the second. But the most important part we wasn’t able to capitalize and get their shooting percentages down. They made a concerted effort to get to the paint, and we wasn’t able to build our wall accordingly.”