For the first 18 minutes this game went a lot like the last few games have gone for Missouri. They scrapped, and fought, and dragged their way through the game, and on the road against a top 25 team they held a narrow 5 point lead with a couple minutes to play in the 1st half.
Missouri was turning the ball over with great frequency (roughly a 40% turnover rate in the first half) but they were making shots (1.45 points per shot), and the defense was clicking as well as you could ask. But then Kobe Brown — already with 2 fouls — was defending a driving player and was a part of a foul.