Missouri Men's Basketball Falls Short in Comeback Attempt Against Seton Hall, 93-87
The Missouri Tigers fell short to Seton Hall 93-87 in a neutral site game in Kansas City, Mo., despite being down by 19 points in the second half.
This highly anticipated matchup between two above-.500 teams had all of the hype in the first half, as Seton Hall took a 38-34 lead heading into the locker rooms. Mizzou guard Tamar Bates led the Tigers in scoring with 15 and the entire team converted on 41.9 percent of field goal attempts, including 6-of-10 makes from behind the arc. Missouri also out-rebounded and out-assisted the Pirates in the first 20 minutes.
However, only one team seemed to have come out of the locker room to start the second half, as Seton Hall found itself up 63-44 after just eight minutes. The Pirates hit shots from all over the court and were often quick when driving inside to either convert layups, dunks or draw fouls. Both teams turned the ball over a bit, but Seton Hall capitalized a whole lot more than Missouri did.
As previously stated Bates was the main scorer in the first half, despite coming into Sunday averaging the fifth-most points per game (7.1). That said, those ahead of him never really got going in the first half and the opening 10 minutes of the second. But Sean East II, Nick Honor, John Tonje and Jesus Carralero Martin started to hit a few shots and eventually cut the lead down to 65-54 with eight minutes remaining.
Honor had an opportunity to make it a single-digit game with two free throws, but he missed them both. Seton Hall turned Mizzou's tough misses into a momentum shift, as the score became 75-56 just two minutes later.
Honor made a pair of free throws after Mizzou's timeout and the tide started to turn in the Tigers' favor once again. Bates and East led a 14-1 run over the course of two minutes to cut it to just a 76-70 deficit. But they couldn't pull off the comeback, as they traded buckets and free throws as time expired.
Bates finished with a team-high 20 points on 6-of-11 shooting, including 4-of-4 from downtown, but East and Honor also tallied double-figures. Forward Noah Carter scored nine points, but led the Tigers in rebounds with nine.
Seton Hall climbs to 6-4 while Missouri falls to 7-3.