Mizzou basketball loses 16th straight as comeback bid vs. Ole Miss falls short
Stop us if you’ve heard this one before.
Mizzou men’s basketball’s losing streak, already at a record high, reached 16 games Saturday night at Mizzou Arena, as Ole Miss left Columbia with a 84-78 win.
The Tigers, from the depths of nowhere, made it a competitive contest.
The Tigers fought tooth and nail to make it a frantic dash to the finish.
But long scoring droughts and a dismal night on the boards sent their penultimate home contest of the season the same way as so many have before.
Here are three takeaways as the Tigers remained winless in the Southeastern Conference:
Comeback bid falls short
Through their losing streak, the Tigers have made teams close games out more often that they’ve watched the clock whittle away.
Saturday proved to be the same old story.
Ole Miss led by 19 at the half. The lead slowly ticked down until Ole Miss was in full-blown-collapse mode.
Sean East and Nick Honor connected from 3 to make it a 12-point contest.
The Tigers went perfect from the line between Tamar Bates, Sean East and Aidan Shaw, who between them knocked down eight free throws between the six- and two-minute mark.
The Tigers held Ole Miss without a basket from the field for nearly 5:30 as the clock entered the final minute.
But Shaw, with Missouri down just three points with 1:20 to play, missed two attempts from the line. Ole Miss found a make through Jameyn Brakefield from the field to find some cushion.
The teams traded free throws, Ole Miss got a defensive stop and ...
Loss No. 16 for the Tigers.
Ole Miss run the boards to build lead
With 11:27 to go in the first half with a three-point lead, Allen Flanigan lofted a corner 3, missed it short, darted forward and grabbed his own board without much of an MU challenge. Missouri guard Anthony Robinson fouled him, Ole Miss inbounded, and Matthew Murrell made a 3.
On their next trip up the court, on the other end of a Sean East II layup, Flanigan missed another 3. This time, 7-foot-5 Mississippi center Jamarion Sharp grabbed the rebound and turned it back in.
And the Rebels weren’t done. Jesus Carralero Martin turned it over on the inbounds pass, Ole Miss’ Moussa Cisse missed, recovered his own miss, and made it two more.
The Tigers gave up seven second-chance points in 74 seconds, fell from a one possession deficit to down eight points.
The Tigers (8-21, 0-16 SEC) gave up 21 second-chance points — a common struggle for Dennis Gates’ team — over the course of the game.
Ole Miss (20-9, 7-9) grabbed 14 offensive rebounds over the course of the game. Missouri managed 22 total rebounds.
Sean East on an island in first half
Sean East II has put Missouri on his back plenty this season, without much reward.
Payday will need to wait.
East was the spark from the jump, dropping a pair of 3s as Missouri leaped out to the lead in the game's opening minutes.
With five minutes remaining in the first half, the guard had 11 points.
The Tigers' problem: No other Missouri player made more than one shot through the first 17 minutes of the game.
There was a four-minute scoring drought that allowed Mississippi to go on a 14-1 run. The Tigers went barren from the field between the 11:04 mark of the first half to the 2:57 mark.
East finished the first half with 13 of Missouri’s 25 points and ended the matchup with a game-high 27.
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Mizzou basketball loses 16th straight, falling short vs. Ole Miss
