
It wasn’t a silky-smooth performance, but the Tigers did enough to take down the Bison.
It finally happened.
For the first time since Dec. 30, Mizzou men’s basketball won a game, this time with a 77-62 triumph over Howard. The result snapped a 20-game losing streak and gave MU its first victory of the 2024-25 campaign.
The Tigers decimated the Bison on the interior; they shot 15/18 on layups and got to the free throw line 31 times, with many of those instances stemming from rim attempts. Whether it was a point guard pushing the pace in transition or a big going to work in the low post, Mizzou was cooking bison meat from in-close.
In the first half, the star of the show in the paint was Mark Mitchell, as Howard seldom had an answer for his presence. The Duke transfer finished with 16 points, 14 of which came in the first half. All four of his field goals came inside of the painted area, and he went a perfect 8/8 from the charity stripe. Mitchell also led the team with eight rebounds.
Defensively, Mizzou was on Howard like fur on a bison in the opening portion of the game. HU didn’t make its first field goal until over seven minutes had passed and found itself down 14-4. The Tigers were effectively shutting down any off-ball movement, as rotations were incredibly crisp. They were able to force dribble pickups in suboptimal positions, which also forced a handful of bad passes that were picked off.
But the road underdogs were able to claw their way back into the game, partially due to the difference in three-point shooting between them and the Tigers. Howard shot 5/9 from beyond the arc in the first half; Mizzou shot 1/11, with its first make coming courtesy of a sweet stepback from Tamar Bates that beat the halftime buzzer.
If there was hope that the halftime break could induce warmer outside shooting, the feeling wasn’t fulfilled. Despite generating open looks from downtown, Mizzou shot just 2/11 in the second half. Howard, on the other hand, shot 5/10 from three-point range. The Bison also gave the Tigers a little taste of their own medicine, converting both in the paint and on the fastbreak. A corner three-pointer by Marcus Dockery pulled Howard within four with 4:38 left in regulation.
However, the Tigers were able to avert another complete second-half collapse with the help of some underclassmen. Marcus Allen scored a pair of layups, capitalizing on solid off-ball movement. Anthony Robinson II, whose two-way impact as helped Mizzou in both of its games thus far, ripped a Bison ball-handler, picked up the loose rock, did a pirouette and converted an and-one layup. Their buckets were part of an 11-0 run that helped close the book on a streak-snapping win.
Bates also put together a solid performance, scoring 17 points on an efficient 6/11 shooting. He was responsible for all three of Mizzou’s made triples on the night.
Mizzou will host its second of 10 consecutive games at home against Eastern Washington on Monday at 6 p.m.
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