COLUMBIA -- All season, the Missouri Tiger offense has led the team to victories.
With the offense faltering, the defense did its best Saturday at Mizzou Arena, but couldn’t hold the Texas A&M Aggies quite long enough in a 69-60 SEC loss.
Missouri started the game 1-for-6 from the field, but the Tigers were forcing turnovers and Texas A&M was only able to build a 5-3 lead at the 17:05 mark.
“I think our guys came out, they did a great job forcing 13 (first-half) turnovers,” Missouri coach Dennis Gates said. “But we weren’t able to convert.”
While shooting just 3-of-15 overall and 2-of-8 from 3 to start the game, Missouri was able to tie it at 11 after Noah Carter kicked one of his co-team-high three assists to D’Moi Hodge for one of his three 3s.
But the shooting woes continued for Missouri as A&M went on a 7-0 run, ending with a Dexter Dennis fastbreak jumper, for two of his 17 points, to put the Aggies up 16-11.
The run put the Aggies up for good.
“We played, more than 35 minutes we were playing behind and that’s a tough spot to be in,” Gates said. “We didn’t do enough.”
Missouri was able to cut the lead to one after DeAndre Gholston drove and kicked one of his three assists to Hodge for another 3, three of his 12 points, but Texas A&M put together another 7-0 run to extend to a 31-21 lead.
Kobe Brown ended the run with 2:45 left in the first half when he grabbed an offensive board, one of his six rebounds, and went up strong for a two-handed slam, two of his game-high 24 points, then he hit a layup with four defenders crashing in on him in the paint to send Missouri into the break down 39-25.
“They wanted to make every catch hard and every look hard,” Brown said. “They wanted to keep us from creating, we call them ‘Dominos,’ just great looks for guys. They did a good job being physical and taking passes away.”
The second half brought different fortunes for Missouri, much better shooting on offense, but far fewer turnovers forced, leading to a similar result.
The Aggies extended the lead to 18 points at 53-35 when Julius Marble connected on a fastbreak layup with 13:38 left.
Missouri cut the lead to 53-40 at the 11:54 mark when Mo Diarra grabbed an offensive rebound, one of his team-high seven boards, and hit a putback layup.
“Mo did a great job,” Gates said. “… Mo was able to give us some energy. … He played excellent, Kobe played excellent.”
The Tigers were able to cut the deficit to eight at multiple points. At 56-48 after a Hodge 3 from the corner, at 59-51 after Brown hit a step-back right-corner 3 that put him above 20 points, and at 61-53 when Sean East used a give and go back cut for a layup off a Diarra assist. But every time Missouri grabbed some momentum, the Aggies took it right back.
“There were runs in the game where we got it down to eight or 10 and then we would turn it over,” Gates said. “We didn’t give ourselves a chance to get to the other side of that run.”
Missouri was only able to cut the Texas A&M lead under 10 one more time, creating the final nine-point margin when Hodge dished an assist to Brown for a fastbreak layup.
The Tigers forced 21 turnovers, including 14 steals -- six of which came from Hodge alone -- but were only able to score 15 points off turnovers and eight on fast breaks.
“We created those turnovers and we weren’t able to turn them into baskets,” Gates said.
Texas A&M outrebounded Missouri 41-23 with a 16-9 advantage in offensive rebounds.
Missouri shot 20-of-51 (39.2 percent) from the field after making only 9-of-30 in the first half, while making 9-of-26 (34.6 percent) from 3 and 11-of-16 (68.8 percent) at the free-throw line.
Texas A&M connected on 22-of-50 (44 percent) overall, 8-of-21 (38.1 percent) from 3 and 17-of-19 (89.5 percent) at the free-throw line.
“When you look at the stat sheet, they made 22, we made 20, we ended up making one more 3. The game was won and lost at the free throw line,” Gates said. “That’s what allowed them to go on that run when they did in the first half.”
Missouri (19-8, 7-7 SEC) will look to rebound from consecutive losses for just the second time this season when it hosts Mississippi State at 6 p.m. Tuesday.
Texas A&M (20-7, 12-2 SEC) will host Tennessee at 6 p.m. Tuesday in a matchup between the Nos. 2 and 3 teams in the SEC.