Post had 14 points on 6-of-8 shooting.
COLUMBIA, Mo. - Mizzou basketball was strong in the post in the annual Black & Gold Scrimmage as the two teams played to a 35-35 tie on Tuesday night (Oct. 14) at Mizzou Arena. Senior forward Keanau Post (Victoria, British Columbia) led the Black Team with 14 points on 6-for-8 shooting and five boards, while junior Ryan Rosburg (Chesterfield, Mo.) tallied nine points on 4-of-4 shooting and three rebounds.
Each team was impressive shooting the rock on Tuesday. Gold shot 53.6-percent from the floor, while Black checked in at 44.1-percent. Gold tallied 24 of its 35 points in the paint and Black scored 18 points down low. As a team, Mizzou assisted on 14 of 30 baskets.
Freshman guard Namon Wright (Los Angeles, Calif.) opened the scoring for the Black Team with a 3-pointer and Tremaine Isabell (Seattle, Wash.) ripped a steal on the next possession as Black opened an early 5-2 lead. Rosburg then slammed home an and-one dunk that brought the crowd to its feet.
Gold battled back to open a 12-10 lead until sophomore Wes Clark (Detroit, Mich.) nailed a deep 3-pointer to give Black the lead back. Rosburg then went baseline on a strong post move and converted to extend the lead to 15-12. The Black team kept that lead to 19-18 at halftime.
The Gold Team rallied behind the play of Post as he nailed a jump hook from the right side to put his team ahead, 30-27, with 4:20 remaining in the second half. Isabell then nailed an acrobatic layup to pull Black back within one.
Gold built a 35-32 lead late in the second half but failed to convert at the one-minute mark as Black regained the ball with a chance to tie or pull within one. Black coach Brad Loos called timeout to draw a play up. They got a wide-open look for Jakeenan Gant (Springfield, Ga.), but his shot caromed off the rim and into the hands of Rosburg, who got a huge offensive board. Clark then drove left and converted a three-point play to tie the game at 35-all with 20 seconds remaining.
With a chance to win the game, Gold Team coach Tim Fuller called timeout to draw a play up, but great help defense from Rosburg forced a turnover. Wright then got a last-second look for the Black Team, but his 3-pointer was just short as the scrimmage ended in a tie.
Mizzou will open the season on Oct. 29 against William Jewell at the Hearnes Center. For all the latest on Mizzou Hoops, stay tuned to MUTigers.com and follow the team on twitter @MizzouHoops.
Mizzou Player Quotes
On preparing for this season...
"I've been getting in the gym every day, getting up shots and listen to what coach says and just learning from him. I'm learning from him (Coach Anderson) because he was a post guy so just looking at him and paying attention to detail."
On improvements in his game...
"I've improved on my shooting and kind of getting open with my shot, my release on my jumper. I'm just trying to come out and look at the post."
On getting to play in a game-like setting for the first time...
"It was good because we get to learn how everybody plays under pressure. It's different than practice because in practice you have to stop and tweak things, but in games you can't do that. You have to figure it out on the fly. I think we did a good job of it."
On contributing early...
"We have a lot of pressure on our shoulders, not just the freshmen, but everybody. I think we're going to live up to the expectations."
On tonight's defense...
"Both our defenses played well so tonight was good, but we can always do better. We're going to go over film and look at the breakdown. I know when we kind of got tired, we slacked off a little bit on defense, but we'll pick it up."
On his play compared to last year...
"I think it's different from this year to last because this one is my senior year. I've been through a year of it. I went through a really tough year last year and with a new coach I just want to go out and have fun."
On his confidence...
"I don't think confidence was an issue last year, I think it was being comfortable. I'm ready for it this year."
On the offense...
"I think from the offense we could see that we worked from the inside out, so that was really big. We have a big team so working that ball inside out should help people get open."
On playing for Coach Anderson...
"It's fun. He likes to have fun too and get after it. He wants us to get after it too, which is what I like about him. He just pushes us because he knows how good we can be and wants us to get the next level."
On discipline...
"We've shown a lot of discipline. We have a lot of young players but we still have to be able to run our offense and run things. We were able to do that tonight without the head coach even involved, so that just felt good to know that we've been listening and just want to keep getting better. Especially with how young we are, we're just going to keep growing and growing."
On Keanau Post...
"Honestly, I think he always had it. We've seen glimpses at all times and he's a stud. He can play. I think he's 280 now and a giant, big man. He can always play. I think last year he just had some tough times and it got to his head. He's rolling now and playing really well."
On the scrimmage tonight...
"I think we had some good times. I think that there are a lot of things we can improve on obviously. I think one time on the floor it was four guys and me who had never played college basketball before and it was kind of just a mess and no one knew who they had, so we have to fix things like that. It was the first time we were playing with refs so that's to be expected, but in time we'll figure it out."
On getting more touches...
"It's night and day. Last year it seemed like a lot of times we were just decoys running around setting screens. Now coach is making them run if they don't pass or look at us so it's kind of constantly focused on the big men. Someone just told me that Keanau and I were the leading scorers and who would of thought that our two big men would be the leading scorers."
HEAD COACH KIM ANDERSON
Opening Statement...
"I felt kind of like Bud Selig in the all-star game, with a 35-35 tie. There was a bit of a controversy back there. They wanted to finish the game. I thought overall, there were some really good things. We talked lot about defense I think there were some spurts where we were aggressive. The first seven minutes of the game were pretty good, and then the last 13 were not quite as good. But I think there were some times in there where we looked pretty good. Our offensive execution was a lot better than I thought it would be, really. We haven't worked a whole lot on offense, more in the last four or five days probably. I thought we made extra passes, thought we got the ball inside. I thought our big guys did a nice job, we got 23 points out of Ryan and Keanau so that's something we want to do, we want to try to throw it inside so we can get some easy baskets. Hopefully we will shoot a little better but you know I think were a team that is evolving from an offensive standpoint. We just need to do a better job defensively, especially transition we work a lot on defensive transition. Tonight I think we got caught up and we didn't get back on defense. We don't want to give up a bunch of lay-ups, I saw a bunch of dunks and lay-ups on the pass break. Its October 14th, so I am pretty pleased with this group so far."
On Rosburg and Post...
"Those two guys have come out and played well. They've played hard. Ryan of course has the experience from a year ago and actually a couple years ago. And you know Keanau has come out and practice and really asserted himself from and offensive standpoint. We have to get better defensively. We've given up too many passes from the inside. Those two guys have impressed me and worked hard, individually and collectively as a team."
On making shots this season...
"Were running some high-low stuff and we actually got some high-low stuff. D'Angelo made some good passes inside, I was really pleased. You know from an offensive standpoint you get really excited, from a defensive standpoint it's too easy and we need to put some more pressure. I thought we started off a little soft, we got pretty aggressive for a few minutes and then we got tired. We only have 12 guys, so we had to keep rotating guys in."
On success this season...
"I think we have to be a really good defensive team. I think at times we are going to struggle offensively until we figure everything out. But to start with, we have to think about defense, I think we could be more aggressive. I'm just not sure we were aggressive enough tonight, but again, any part of that is conditioning. I just want to get better every game. I think we're a young team, we have about eight guys that didn't play a year ago, so eight out of 12 have never played before. A successful season to me would be improving every night out. Obviously, contending for whatever postseason honors that we're close to getting to also.
On Deuce's dunk shot over his head...
"I felt a breeze go through and then Rosburg said, `you almost got killed." I said `was it close?' and he said `It was real close. It's a good thing you ducked.' He {Deuce Bello} asked me, and I said `are you sure you can dunk over me? I'm pretty tall.' And he goes `well you better bend over a little bit.'"