COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Kevin Puryear's 3-point basket drove Mizzou Arena into a frenzy with 16:15 left in Missouri's game Saturday.
Fans were on their feet cheering as Missouri was only down by four points to No. 20 Arizona, who had a lead as large as 17 points in the first half. Unfortunately for the Tigers, it was the closest they would get to the Wildcats, who followed the basket with a 26-4 run to beat Missouri 79-60.
"I thought the momentum was really good going into half," Missouri head coach Kim Anderson said. "I thought our guys were really, really feeling good on what they had done. And we had chances in the first four or five minutes to cut the lead even more, we had the ball to start the second half. We just couldn't get it done."
Saturday's game was another slow start by the Tigers, who didn't score until the 16:09 mark of the first half and started 1-for-9 on field goals. Arizona's lead reached 25-8 with 10:29 left in the first half.
But the Wildcats got themselves into foul trouble in the first half, and Missouri was able to use that to chip away at the lead until it was 41-36 at halftime.
"I think we started off slow again, I thought we did a great job of coming back. I was really proud of our guys and the way they competed," Anderson said. "I thought they made shots. I thought in the first half we did a pretty good job of changing defenses and maybe keeping them a little bit off balance, then in the second half after about five minutes, you know this is a good team, they figured it out."
Anderson's plan to defend Arizona was to focus on 7-footers Dusan Ristic and Lauri Markkanen. At times the Tigers would double-team them to slow them down.
And they did. Markkanen only had eight points and nine rebounds before fouling out, while Ristic had 12 points and seven rebounds.
"Just being physical, being physical with him," Missouri forward Kevin Puryear, who matched up on Markkanen, said. "Not letting him get comfortable with where he was on the floor. He likes to operate mid-post area so I try to eliminate that so I try to get a couple 3's off and that aspect I've got to tighten up a little bit, but overall the game plan we stuck to it regarding him and I thought we did a good job."
But it was Arizona guards Kawle Alkins, Kobi Simmons and Kadeem Allen who burned Missouri.
Missouri (5-4) led the nation in defending the 3-pointer coming into Saturday, limiting opponents to 23.7 percent. Arizona coach Sean Miller after the game said Missouri essentially dared the Wildcats to shoot the 3-pointer, and they responded to shoot 13-of-24 on 3-point shots.
Alkins had 19 points on 4-of-7 shooting before the arc, while Simmons also had 19 with 3-of-6 shooting from the 3-point line. Allen had 14 points.
"They shot the ball better than we thought they would," Anderson admitted. "Hats off the them, their three guards shot the ball well and we didn't."
In contrast, the Tigers shot 4-of-18 on 3-point shots and 18-of-55 overall. Missouri also finished 20-of-30 from the free-throw line. Puryear led the Tigers in scoring with 11 points, and Hughes was right behind with 10. Hughes, however, shot 2-of-13 from the field.
Missouri did not make a basket for a stretch of 6:59 in the second half. Arizona scored 21 points in that stretch to turn a five-point lead into a 21-point bulge.
"We can't continue to shoot the ball like we had, we can't continue to do it," Anderson said. "Part of it is we get some good shots sometimes and miss them, but I've been real politically correct about some things, and we've taken some bad shots too. And we have to get them corrected, we will get them corrected, quickly."
The Tigers are shooting 41.1 percent on field goals and 29.1 percent from 3-pointers on the season. Missouri has a week to correct its shooting problems before hosting Eastern Illinois at 2:30 p.m. Saturday.
Notes: Sophomore point guard Terrence Phillips left the game with 8:04 remaining after colliding with an Arizona player. He walked off the court under his own power, but winced in pain before going into the locker room. Anderson did not have an update on him. Anderson is hopeful freshman forward Reed Nikko can play against Eastern Illinois. Nikko has been out with a sprained ankle. Junior forward Kevin Barnett will make his season debut next Saturday for Missouri. Barnett is a transfer from Texas who played at C.B.C. in St. Louis, where he was the No. 1 recruit in Missouri.
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