Missouri drops decision in OT to Mississippi

Missouri's Jordan Barnett watches the ball bounce away from him during the second half of Tuesday night's game against Mississippi at Mizzou Arena.
Missouri's Jordan Barnett watches the ball bounce away from him during the second half of Tuesday night's game against Mississippi at Mizzou Arena.

COLUMBIA, Mo. - Six players in double figures and 87 points were not enough for Missouri to outlast the Southeastern Conference's worst team playing without its head coach of 12 years in overtime.

The Tigers fell to 18-10, 8-7 SEC in a 90-87 loss to the Mississippi Rebels, scored three points in the extra period and missed six free throws in the final six minutes of play.

Jontay Porter led Missouri with 17 points and Kassius Robertson scored 16, but was scoreless after the 9:41 mark in the second half. Jordan Geist and Jordan Barnett added 15 each, Jeremiah Tilmon scored 12 and added 12 rebounds and Kevin Puryear scored 11.

"We had 21 turnovers tonight," Puryear said. "That's an inexcusable lack of focus, lack of toughness. It's embarrassing, actually, to have 21 turnovers on your home floor, but we've got to get back in to fix that."

Even more frustrating for the Tigers was allowing 90 points at home after holding five of their previous six opponents under 70 points. Mississippi missed one of its 16 free throw attempts, turned the ball over 10 fewer times, outscored Missouri 12-0 in transition and 19-8 off of turnovers, and capitalized on a lackluster defense to break out of its own slump.

It was the team's first conference road win of the season.

"It means the world to me, especially after a few tough road games that we were right there and balls just don't go in and we end up on the short side of it," said Breein Tyree, who led the Rebels with 25 points. "It feels great to be on the other side of an overtime win."

Mississippi (12-16, 5-10 SEC) led by double digits for nearly the entire first half and for the first 10 minutes of the second half, but Missouri made its own run to tie the game with 7:26 left. The Tigers took a five-point lead with two minutes remaining but again could not hold on to a lead when its opponent showed pressure and an ability to score when it had the ball. A Tyree floater with three seconds left sent the game to overtime, and Tyree and Markel Crawford made free throws down the stretch to close the game out.

"Same thing that it's usually been," Barnett said. "Couldn't close out the game. Turnovers down the stretch. Same old same old."

On Missouri's final play, Jordan Geist took the inbound, dribbled to the right wing, saw nothing open, and his 3 before the buzzer was short. Cuonzo Martin said the play was a Barnett screen to Robertson in the corner and thought the pass was there, but said he'd have to check the film to make sure. Puryear was adamant the final play was not what did Missouri in.

Missouri missed 11 free throws in the game, finishing 20-of-31. Every player who attempted a free throw missed one except Puryear, who was 2-for-2. The Tigers went 7-for-17 in Saturday's loss at LSU, and have shot 56.3 percent from the line the last two games, 18 points below their season free throw percentage.

"We're obviously a better free throw shooting team than the last two games," Martin said.

If Missouri wants to keep these errors categorized as 'uncharacteristic' and not 'recurring,' they have work to do before Saturday's rematch against Kentucky in Lexington, Ky.. Tuesday's loss was a winnable game at home the Tigers could have taken, but one win against either Kentucky or Vanderbilt on the road or Arkansas at home should be enough to see them into the NCAA Tournament. The Tigers were a No.  7 seed  in the latest ESPN bracket from Joe Lunardi.