After coming up with several creative and confounding ways to avoid it, Missouri finally won its SEC tournament opener against Texas A&M on Thursday afternoon at the Georgia Dome.
The Tigers blew a nine-point lead in the second half and threw the ball away when leading in the final moments of the first overtime before finally pulling away in the second overtime. Missouri secured the 91-83 victory even with All-SEC guards Jabari Brown and Jordan Clarkson fouling out.
“Obviously we made some mistakes down the stretch, but we showed some character and found a way to win,” Missouri coach Frank Haith said.
The Tigers (22-10) advanced to face top-ranked Florida (29-2) in the quarterfinals Friday. Brown scored 26 points before fouling out during the first overtime, and Clarkson (12 points) fouled out in the second overtime.
Texas A&M (17-15) had four players foul out, including frontcourt starters Kourtney Roberson and Antwan Space. Missouri made 40 free throws.
“They shot 53 free throws. I’m all for the new rules, but you’ve got to be kidding,” Texas A&M coach Billy Kennedy said. “That’s too many free throws. Whether we did it or not, I didn’t see it from my side. We need to adjust to it, and we didn’t adjust.”
Missouri also had a 48-28 advantage on the boards, that included 19 offensive rebounds. The Tigers scored 30 second-chance points.
The Aggies led 68-64 with less than two minutes to play in regulation, but were outscored 14-6 in the second overtime.
“I think as a team we mentally thought we had the game, and we were going to take it in the second overtime,” Texas A&M guard Alex Caruso said. “Give credit to them, they did what they had to do, but that’s on us to finish when their two best players (Brown and Clarkson) are out of the game.”
Caruso led the Aggies with 28 points, eight rebounds and seven assists. Earnest Ross had 24 points and seven rebounds for Missouri.
Clarkson had four turnovers as Missouri blew a nine-point advantage in the final nine minutes of regulation and another that allowed the Aggies to tie the score in the final 10 seconds of regulation. He scored the first four points of the first overtime for a 72-68 lead.
With Missouri leading 76-73 and the shot clock close to expiring, Clarkson drove the lane and tumbled to the floor. Jordan Green was called for tripping Clarkson, a whistle that the Aggies and fans in the arena protested.
“From my angle, I thought it was walking and should have been a no-call if anything,” Kennedy said. “But you have to give them credit, they drove the ball and made the referees blow the whistle a lot of times.”
After Clarkson made a free throw, Roberson made two to cut the Aggies’ deficit to 77-75 with 11 seconds left in overtime. The Tigers got the ball inbounds, but Blake McDonald stole it from Clarkson and fed Caruso for a layup with eight seconds to go.
The Tigers got some key contributions off the bench to win. Torren Jones had nine rebounds in 12 minutes, and Wes Clark made four free throws during the second overtime.
The Tigers led 34-26 after a 17-8 run to end the first half. The Tigers still led by nine points with 8:58 to go, but wilted before recovering to win.
“Credit to all the young guys who stepped in and made plays,” Brown said.
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