The Missouri Tigers (10-1) rallied behind hot three-point shooting and tightening of their defenses in the second half to an 83-72 victory over the Jacksonville State Gamecocks (6-5).
Jacksonville State’s scouting report had one glaring player on it—Jaron Pierre Jr.— who was the country’s fourth leading scorer at 23.2 points-per-game coming into this tilt. However, it was the Gamecocks’ sixth man Michael Houge that was doing damage early.
Houge matched his season average of 10 points before reaching the halfway mark of the first half, as the Gamecocks raced to an early 19-12 lead. During this timespan, no Tiger other than Tony Perkins had even made a field goal, a drought that was broken by a bucket from Josh Gray with 9:41 remaining in the opening frame.