No. 2 Tigers Host Southern On Thursday
12/6/2001 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 6, 2001
Complete Release in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader
TIGERS TO DEFEND NO. 2 RANKING THURSDAY AT HOME VS. SOUTHERN
The 2nd-ranked Missouri Tigers (8-0) look to extend their winning streak to nine games Thursday when they host the Southern University Jaguars at the Hearnes Center in a 7 p.m. contest.
Missouri is coming off a hardfought 69-67 win at Saint Louis Monday, a game which saw sophomore guard Wesley Stokes provide the heroics with a game-winning jumper at the buzzer. The Tigers are off to the school's best start since the 1991-92 squad began its season 11-0.
Southern comes to Hearnes for the 4th time since the teams first met in there in December of 1988. The Jaguars are 0-3 thus far, dropping road games at LSU (97-69) and Centenary (99-69), sandwiched around a home loss to West Alabama (54-45).
TIGERS GO FOR SWAC LEAD
Missouri wraps up its swing through the Southwest Athletic Conference (SWAC) with Thursday's game vs. Southern. The Jaguars will mark the third SWAC opponent in MU's last four games.
Should the Tigers win Thursday, they'll be 3-0 vs. the SWAC. Theoretically, if no other SWAC team was to win 3 league games this year, would Missouri get the league's automatic bid? Just kidding.
After MU's game Thursday, the Tigers' remaining non-conference foes will include ranked Iowa, Illinois and Virginia teams, as well as a road game at DePaul and a home tilt vs. Coppin State.
REST COMING SOON FOR THE WEARY
Thursday's game will mark the end of a busy stretch for Missouri, as the Southern game will be the 7th for the Tigers in the past 17 days, dating from Nov. 20th to Dec. 6th - virtually a game every other day.
Mizzou will have a chance to get rested following Thursday's tilt, however, as they will play a total of 3 games over the final 25 days of December - on the 15th vs. Iowa, on the 22nd vs. Illinois and on the 29th at DePaul.
The nine days between games of Dec. 6th and Dec. 15th will represent the longest game-free stretch of Missouri's season.
LAST TIME OUT: MU 69, SAINT LOUIS 67
Wesley Stokes hit an 18-foot jumper at the buzzer to give Missouri a thrilling 69-67 win over pesky Saint Louis Monday at the Savvis Center in St. Louis, Mo.
Stokes took possession near midcourt and dribbled near the top of the key, then shot over Marque Perry for the game-winner.
The situation was reversed on the previous play when Perry, who scored nine points over the final 39 seconds, tied it with a 3-pointer over Stokes with 4.8 seconds to go.
Arthur Johnson led Missouri (8-0) with 16 points and 14 rebounds, his third straight double-double.
Rush and Gilbert had 18 points each for the Tigers, off to the school's best start since the 1991-92 team began the season 11-0.
Missouri won despite going just 1-of-10 from the three-point line - the worst long-range shooting game under Quin Snyder.
Gilbert started slow but finished strong for the second straight game, missing his first four shots and finishing 8-for-15. Gilbert scored six straight points for Missouri in a late stretch run to put the Tigers ahead 62-56 with 2:34 to go, and also had two free throws in the frenzied final minute.
Saint Louis was 6-for-10 from 3-point range in the first half, taking a 35-31 lead. Drew Diener and Perry each hit two from long range, while Missouri was 1-for-6.
MU-SLU POST-GAME NOTABLES
FINDING WAYS TO WIN
In the first two years under Quin Snyder's direction, Missouri fell victim quite often to its dependance on the outside shot. While the 3-pt. shot is still a vital weapon in MU's arsenal, this year's Tigers are showing they have the ability to win games in varied ways - more often than not the trait of a good team.
What's this all mean? That's debatable, certainly, but it should show that Missouri is no longer a one-dimensional team that lives and dies by the long jumper.
MU-SOUTHERN SERIES HISTORY
Missouri and Southern University will meet for the 4th time when they tip it off Thursday at Hearnes. The Tigers own a 3-0 lead in the series history, with all 3 previous head-to-heads coming in Columbia.
MU has averaged 110.3 points per game against the Jaguars, as the Tigers have scored 106 or better in each game. The average score of the series is 110.3 to 84.0.
In Southern's defense, two of their meetings with MU have come against Tiger teams that were ranked in the nation's top-10 at the time. Mizzou was ranked #5 in the Associated Press poll when Southern visited Columbia for the 1990 meeting, and the Tigers were ranked 10th when the two teams squared off in 1988. MU was unranked for the 1996 meeting.
GETTING QUALITY WINS
In getting out of the gates to a perfect 8-0 start, Missouri has already claimed wins against teams from four of the top conferences in college basketball.
MU has downed Iowa of the Big Ten, Alabama of the SEC, Xavier of the Atlantic 10 and Saint Louis of Conference USA.
Mizzou will have a chance to add the ACC to its list when the Tigers host Virginia in its last non-league game of the regular season in February.
