COLUMBIA -- The seconds ticked away as Missouri brought the ball up the court.
With the ball near midcourt and 12 seconds left, Nick Honor stepped up to the 3-point line, then side-stepped to the left wing to create open space. Honor heaved above the defender closing out on him and nailed the 3 with seven seconds left in overtime to lead the Tigers to a 66-64 overtime win against the Mississippi State Bulldogs on Tuesday at Mizzou Arena.
“I want him to shoot more, I need him to be a little more selfish,” Missouri coach Dennis Gates said. “I yelled, ‘Shoot it,” and I’m glad he listened.”
“I had Tolu Smith on me and he backed up a little … I just had to trust my jump shot,” Honor said.
Honor also hit a 3 to start the overtime period, giving Missouri a 60-57 advantage, but just as they had all game, the Bulldogs had an answer.
D.J. Jeffries hit a 3, for three of his 10 points, to tie the game for the 12th time with 3:47 left to play, then Tolu Smith used a turnover to create a layup and give the Bulldogs a 62-60 advantage with 2:44 left.
Missouri answered with a Noah Carter 3 off a Tre Gomillion assist to take a 63-62 lead with 47 seconds remaining, but Dashawn Davis connected on a short jumper to give Mississippi state its final lead at 64-63. Honor’s final 3 was the 19th lead change in the game.
“It was a game that had remnants of March,” Gates said. “It was a game with minimal runs, which is seen in conference tournaments. That was a conference tournament game with a conference tournament feel.”
In a season full of highs and lows, Missouri played abnormally normal Tuesday.
The Tigers didn’t shoot the lights out, they connected on 23-of-57 (40.4 percent) overall, 8-of-24 (33.3 percent) from 3, with a 3-for-3 performance from deep in the five-minute overtime period, and 12-of-19 (63.2 percent) at the free-throw line. Missouri didn’t create a crazy number of turnovers, forcing 14 while turning the ball over 12 times itself.
The Tigers also didn’t get outrebounded by nearly as much as usual, with Mississippi State leading just 41-38 and for just the second time this season, the Tigers won without scoring 70 points.
The Tigers looked to have a different mindset starting the game Tuesday, with Mohamed Diarra in the starting lineup for the first time, collecting four offensive rebounds on the opening possession. But as they had during the two-game losing streak the Tigers entered Tuesday with, the shots continued to not fall.
Missouri missed its first four shots, while Mississippi State built a 5-0 lead, before Diarra drove from the left wing and reached around a defender in the paint for a layup.
“Mohamed did a good job,” Gates said. “I told him two days ago that he was going to start and he tried to hold his smile in. I asked him if he told his mom who stays up late in France to watch him play. … I think he earned it. … Transitions happen for different people at different times and his transition has allowed him to work, get involved in the process, fall in love with it and do the necessary things he has to do on and off the court.”
The Tigers took their first lead at 6-5 after D’Moi Hodge turned one of his three steals -- placing him only five behind Missouri’s all-time single-season leader Lynn Hardy with 76 in 1986-87 -- into two free throws, two of his 16 points.
The teams went back and forth with neither building more than a two-possession lead. Mississippi State’s biggest lead of the night was six points, which came with 15:10 left in the second half, while Missouri’s was four points at 6:53 in the second.
Hodge dished an assist to Kobe Brown waiting under the basket for a dunk, two of his game-high 17 points, to tie the game at 29 with 1:20 left in the first half, then Honor hit a layup to tie it again at 31.
But Mississippi State got three free throws from Davis with two seconds on the clock to send the Bulldogs into the break up 34-31.
“We were down three because we made mistakes and we gave up five points in the last couple seconds,” Gates said. “And we can’t put ourselves in that situation.”
Jeffries hit a fastbreak layup to extend Mississippi State to its biggest lead at 42-36 with 15:10 left to play, but Missouri came back to tie at 44 after Brown hit a short jumper off a turnover for two of Missouri’s 15 points off turnovers.
After a Brown second-chance layup and free throw with 7:37 left put the Tigers up 49-47, they did not trail the rest of regulation, but could never extend past a four-point advantage.
With eight seconds left and a 57-55 lead, Missouri fouled Smith sending him to the line for two free throws, two of his team-high 14 points.
“We were gonna foul up two, we wanted the last possession,” Gates said. “… It’s just playing the analytics, I did not want them to have the last possession. That foul was pretty much on time. … Now, once you play analytics, you have to understand, you have to execute.”
The ball was knocked away under Mississippi State’s basket with 2.2 seconds left, leaving the Tigers with one more attempt. They fed Brown underneath, but he was unable to get the last attempt to go, sending the game to overtime.
Brown added six rebounds and five steals to his 17-point performance, while Hodge had 16 points, four rebounds three steals and three blocks. Honor had 10 points and a co-game-high five assists, while Carter had 10 points and three boards. Gomillion had a co-game-high 10 boards and Diarra had five points and four rebounds.
Smith had a double-double of 14 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Bulldogs.
Missouri (20-8, 8-7 Southeastern Conference) will try to move Gates into second all-time in wins in a debut season for a Tiger head coach (Cuonzo Martin’s 20 were second) when it plays at Georgia at noon Saturday.