Columbia, Mo. ? The
UMKC men's basketball team dropped a 96-76 decision at Missouri on Tuesday night at the Mizzou
Arena. The Kangaroos played neck-and-neck
with the Tigers over the first 20 minutes, but MU scored 61 second half points
on 71 percent shooting en route to the 20-point victory.
The Tigers jumped out to an early 6-0 lead before the
Kangaroos responded with a 9-1 run to take a 9-7 advantage. Senior Tim Blackwell connected on a three
pointer at the 15:49 mark to even the score at seven, and junior Kenny Simms
followed with a putback to give UMKC its first lead.
Mizzou answered with a 12-2 spurt over a five-minute stretch
to build a 19-11 lead. Junior Dane
Brumagin then connected on a trey from the corner to get the Kangaroos to
within five (19-14), but the Tigers scored 10-of-12 points to push the margin
to 13 (29-16) with 8:22 left.
Back-to-back three pointers by Blackwell and Brian Gettinger
opened a 19-6 UMKC run to close out the first half. Brumagin did most of the damage for the
Kangaroos, as he scored 11 points, nine of which came on long balls. With just two seconds remaining, the forward connected
on a triple from the corner to send the game into the break even at 35.
After missing its final nine shots of the first half, Mizzou
answered in a big way by making its first 10 shots of the second. As a result, the Tigers went on a 25-6 run to
build their advantage to 60-41 with 15:22 remaining. Two post players ? DeMarre Carroll and Leo
Lyons ? accounted for 19 of the points during the spurt.
The Kangaroos wouldn't quit fighting, as they countered with
a 13-4 run over a four-minute stretch to cut the lead to 10 points (64-54) with
10 to play. UMKC then managed to get the
margin to nine points on a pair of occasions with the final coming at 72-63.
UMKC kept the deficit at 12 points until the 4:25 mark when
the Tigers started pulling away. MU
stretched its lead to a game-high 21 points (92-71) with 1:10 to play before
going on to the 96-76 victory.
The Kangaroos shot .403 (25-62) from the floor and .400
(14-35) from long range. It was the
third straight contest that UMKC has made 10 or more three pointers. MU shot. 524 (33-63) from the field and .353
(6-17) from three-point land. The Tigers
also outrebounded UMKC, 40-34, and they had 26 assists to the Kangaroos' 13.
Three UMKC players finished the game in double figures. Senior Brent Stephens paced the squad with 20
points on 6-of-12 shooting, while Brumagin finished with 17 and a game-high eight rebounds for the squad. Freshman Reggie
Hamilton added 13 points to go along with four assists.
Five MU players, meanwhile, finished the game in double
digits. Lyons paced the squad with 22 points on a
10-of-12 night from the floor. Stefhon
Hannah, meanwhile, posted a double-double with 13 points and 11 assists.
The Kangaroos (5-12) will return to Summit League action on
Saturday night against Southern Utah. The game is the second of a UMKC-SUU
doubleheader.
