Men’s Basketball Falls in OT to South Carolina

Columbia, Mo. – The Missouri men’s basketball team fell in overtime, 71-69, to South Carolina Saturday afternoon at Mizzou Arena. With the defeat, the Tigers move to 8-8 on the season and 0-3 in conference play, while South Carolina improves to 14-2 and 2-1 versus league opponents.

Graduate Noah Carter led the Tigers with a season-high 23 points and has amassed 20-plus points in back-to-back contests for the first time in his career. Graduate Sean East II added 15 points, while securing a career-best eight rebounds. East II is the first Tiger with 15+ points in 11-straight contests in 10 years (Jabari Brown).

Mizzou fell behind early after South Carolina knocked down its first three shots to jump out to a 7-0 lead. However, senior Jesus Carralero Martin would provide a spark off the bench with back-to-back baskets and an assist to Noah Carter for a slam to help the Tigers respond.

The teams would continue to scrap it out for the rest of the half, as neither team was able to pull away from the other. The largest lead of the half would come when a 6–0 run launched by an East II 3-pointer gave Mizzou a six-point cushion, 29-23.

In the closing moments of the half, SC bounced back to claw into the Mizzou lead to just one point. Entering the break the Tigers held the advantage at 33-32.

The second half story would remain the same, as the teams would battle with the Mizzou advantage bouncing between one and six points until the closing seconds. With just a couple minutes remaining, Mizzou held a 62-59 lead, but with under 30 seconds remaining, Ta’Lon Cooper knocked down a crucial 3-pointer for the Gamecocks to take the matinee contest to overtime.

During the extra period, South Carolina jumped out to a 69-64 advantage, but the Tigers would respond as Carter would score all seven of the Tigers’ points in the period to even the game at 69-69. With less than 15 seconds to go, Jacobi Wright hit a contested jumper to secure a 71-69 victory.

Missouri shot 41.9 percent from the field, while South Carolina hit 40.7 percent of its shots in the contest.

UP NEXT
The Tigers look to bounce back as they hit the road to take on Alabama, on Tuesday night. Tip-off is set for 6 p.m. and will be available on the SEC Network.