You wanted good basketball in Kansas City? The Missouri Tigers and Georgetown Hoyas delivered on Tuesday night at the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Mo. The 16th ranked Hoyas walked away with a stunning 111-102 overtime victory over Mizzou giving the ninth ranked Tigers their first loss of the season.
To say this is disappointing for Mizzou is an understatement. They were down by as much as 18 in the first half but clawed their way back into the second half to eventually reclaim the lead. The two teams went back and forth the final eight minutes of the game with each taking multiple turns with as the leader.
Marcus Denmon was a superstar for Mizzou as he hit big shot after big shot en route to a 27-point, five rebound game. He shot a ridiculous 10-of-12 from the field including 5-of-7 from beyond the arc and 2-of-2 from the line. All five Mizzou starters ended in double digits including Ricardo Ratliffe who had a solid game with 22 points and seven boards. For Georgetown, Austin Freeman was the star with 31 points but they had excellent performances from Chris Wright with 21 points and 26 points from Jason Clark.
The Tigers began to pull away, slightly, with just a few minutes remaining as they took their biggest lead of the game -- five points -- with just four minutes remaining.
The Tigers held onto a four point lead with 19 seconds left and it appeared they were on their way to a victory as Laurence Bowers stood at the free throw line looking to extend the lead. Bowers missed the first, and another one, as Georgetown's Chris Wright grabbed the rebound and headed up court.
If Bowers hits either of those, this game is probably over. Nevertheless, Wright's rebound gave him the ball moving up court where he was inexplicably fouled by Mizzou's MIchael Dixon with 14.8 seconds left. Cameras showed neither Dixon nor head coach Mike Anderson was too happy about the foul as it stopped the clock in a game where seconds mattered (a lot).
Dixon's foul resulted in two made free throws cutting Mizzou's lead to just two points.
Mizzou got the ball back and Dixon was fouled hitting the first of two free throws. Georgetown brought the ball back down the count with under 10 seconds remaining and shot a desperation three-pointer that was off the mark. Mizzou's Kim English attempted to grab the ball as it fell out of bounds near the basket but all he could do was throw it back into play -- right into the hands of a Georgetown player who quickly pushed it out to Chris Wright and....
Well, you can guess what happened. Wright made the three, sent the game to overtime where Georgetown quickly pulled out to what turned out to be an insurmountable lead.
The loss is disappointing on so many levels. We said before the game this was an opportunity for Mizzou to prove they're for real. I think they did some of that tonight but it would have been nice to get the win and have tangible evidence of just how real they are.
Loading comments...