It was far from Mizzou men’s basketball’s prettiest outing of the season, but the Tigers did enough to pick up their sixth consecutive win of the season with a 81-61 defeat of Lindenwood.
MU’s shining stars of the night were Marques Warrick and Tony Perkins. Perkins dropped 18, while Warrick scored 17 points on an efficient 6/10 shooting. However, the scoring proved to be a true team effort, as 11 different players entered the points column.
“We’re real dangerous,” Perkins said. “Rebounding-wise, scoring-wise, whatever we need, anybody in the game can do it.”
The Tigers constructed a solid lead in the first half before blowing it open in the second half. The biggest momentum-generator came on a 12-2 run that built a 22-point advantage with 8:40 to go in regulation.
“Our whole program is based on energy-generating behaviors,” Warrick said. “(There were) not a lot of students out there. We got to do a good job ourselves making sure the energy is there for sure from the start.”
The Tigers didn’t let the lead get below 16 the rest of the way.
Mizzou failed to execute in a couple of key facets, however. One was taking care of the ball, as the Tigers struggled with turnovers from the get-go, allocating 11 turnovers in the first half and 20 overall. LU scored 21 points off of those turnovers, while Mizzou scored just seven points off of the 12 it forced. Many of them were self-inflicted, including an inbounds pass by Mark Mitchell that was intercepted by Markeith Browning II following a made layup; Browning converted the rim attempt through contact, cutting the MU lead to two and inducing a timeout from Dennis Gates.
Mizzou also struggled with three-point shooting. Outside of Warrick, who cashed in two of his three attempts from beyond the arc, Mizzou shot 2/11 from three-point range in the first 20 minutes of action. MU would finish just 5/22 from beyond the arc.
However, the Tigers were able to play well enough to walk out of Mizzou Arena with a comfortable victory, especially as Lindenwood shot under 35% from the field and 3/20 from three-point range. The Lions also got outrebounded 46-25.
“How can we offset those 20 turnovers? Well, we had to crash the glass a little bit more, get Second Chance Shots and also steals,” Gates said. “I thought we were able to do it.”
But concern still lies with Caleb Grill, who suffered a scary injury early in the game. With just over 10 minutes left in the half, Grill had his neck snapped back while going up for a defensive rebounding. He remained on the ground for several minutes before being taken off the court on a stretcher. A team spokesman said that Grill suffered a head and neck injury, was responsive and was taken to the hospital as a precautionary measure.
“We’re awaiting results of a CT scan,” Gates said. “Whenever you have a head or neck injury, you want to be precautious and have some caution with that, and that’s what that was all about, making sure that he was okay. He was responsive, talking the entire time when I was down there in the huddle with him. He even rolled out with his thumb up, so that was a good sign to see.”
Mizzou won’t play again until next Tuesday when California comes to town for the ACC/SEC challenge. It will be the first time Gates faces his alma mater as a head coach. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m. CST.
