Mizzou Opens Season with Road Win Against Howard

The Missouri Tigers opened their college basketball season with an 88-67 win on the road against the Howard Bison, fueled by the efforts of two transfers in center Shawn Phillips Jr. and guard Jayden Stone. 

Those two transfers put up solid numbers in their debut games, but a few team-wide weaknesses glared as time passed. Turnovers became an apparent issue, finishing the game with 16. A good chunk of those came in the second half in a period of time where the group looked very sped up and out of sorts. 

The Tigers did force 13 against Howard, but still lost the turnover margin.

Issues on the defensive end were also highlighted throughout the 40 minutes. In fact, Missouri arguably did its best defending later in the second half when it shifted to a matchup zone to force perimeter shots. It was effective and allowed the Tigers to seal the game. 

To start things off, Missouri quickly forced Howard into playing their own brand of basketball, forcing multiple turnovers, running quickly in transition and attempting plenty of triples. It helped the Tigers jump out to a quick and efficient lead, one that held up, for the most part, through the game’s end.

It was clear from the get-go that Phillips, a big man transfer from Arizona State, would lead the way for the Tigers in the scoring department with 16 on 8-for-9 shooting. He also grabbed 11 rebounds.  

Dennis Gates’ team looked like a deep one before it started the season and the group absolutely proved that against Howard. Gates played nine guys and had multiple players come off the bench, such as Stone. 

Stone was a catalyst for three-point shooting against the Bison. In total, he finished with 13 points on 5-for-7 shooting, while going 3-for-4 from beyond the arc.

The Tigers did show that they’ll be a team that favors the three-point line. They went 10-for-19 from the perimeter, with their volume waning in the second half. 

One guy who didn’t have the flashiest of games was junior point guard Anthony Robinson II. He didn’t score a single point in the first half on five attempts and hobbled off the court at the end of the half following an odd collision. He did come back into the game in the second half, but still struggled to be productive and finished with eight points on 1-for-6 shooting.

Robinson also committed four fouls, an area in which the Tigers are expecting Robinson to be better.  

Howard looked very good on defense, outside of the turnovers it forced. Missouri went later into the shot clock on multiple possessions and, in general, looked very sped up. 

Leading the way in the scoring department for the Bison was senior guard Bryce Harris. He finished with 27 points on 9-for-17 shooting. 

Missouri will play its first game at home and second of the season at 7 p.m. on Friday against Southeast Missouri State.