COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — A balanced scoring effort helped Missouri defeat Maryland Eastern Shore 73-55 Sunday at the CBE Hall of Fame Classic.

Wes Clark led the Tigers with 15 points and three assists, shooting 3 of 6 from 3-point range. Kevin Puryear added 13 points and five rebounds, and Terrence Phillips had 13 points, three rebounds and two assists.

After leading 34-32 at halftime, the Tigers used a 19-8 run to secure a double-digit lead in the second half. K.J. Walton scored 11 points off the bench, all of which came in the second half.

Missouri (2-0) stepped up its defense in the second half, often utilizing a full-court press. The Hawks (0-2) committed 10 of their 13 turnovers in the second half. Missouri finished with 11 points off turnovers.

Maryland Eastern Shore’s Bakari Copeland led all scorers with 16 points as well as six rebounds. He finished 4 of 10 from the field, including 1 of 4 in the second half.

The Hawks struggled defensively after halftime, committing 17 of their 25 personal fouls in the second half. Missouri finished 23 of 30 from the free-throw line while the Hawks shot 14 of 22.

Senior Devin Martin added 13 points and six rebounds for the Hawks.

Missouri forward D’Angelo Allen saw his first action of the season, scoring 2 points and grabbing four rebounds in 15 minutes of play. Allen was withheld from Missouri’s 92-53 exhibition victory over Missouri Western and did not play in an 83-74 season-opening victory over Wofford on Friday.

Maryland Eastern Shore relied heavily on its 3-point shooting. The Hawks were 5 of 15 from 3-point range in the first half but shot just 2 of 5 in the second half.

—

TIP-INS

Missouri: The Tigers scored more points in their season-opening 83-74 victory over Wofford than in any game last season. Their season-high a year ago came in an 85-79 loss at Auburn Jan. 10.

Maryland Eastern Shore: Coach Bobby Collins led the Hawks to an 18-16 record last season in his first year with the program. The 18 wins were the most in 41 seasons for the Hawks.

UP NEXT

Missouri visits Xavier Tuesday.

Maryland Eastern Shore visits Wofford Saturday.

— Mizzou Athletics —

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — J’Mon Moore’s touchdown catch early in the fourth quarter helped Missouri to a 20-16 victory over BYU on Saturday night, capping a tumultuous week for the Tigers that began with a boycott and included the resignation announcement of coach Gary Pinkel.

Drew Lock threw for 244 yards, and Russell Hansbrough ran for 117 yards, helping the Tigers (5-5) snap a four-game losing streak while greatly improving their faded bowl prospects.

Tanner Mangum threw for 244 yards for the Cougars (7-3), hitting Francis Bernard with a short TD pass with 7:19 left to get within 20-16. But the Missouri defense stiffened the rest of the way to seal the victory in a game that could have never happened.

The game was put in doubt last weekend when black players said they wouldn’t practice or play until university system president Tim Wolfe left office. The team joined forces with a student activist group that had been trying to get the president’s attention for months, as well as a graduate student, Jonathan Butler, who had started a hunger strike as part of the protest.

Not playing the game could have cost Missouri $1 million or more. The president resigned on Monday, less than 48 hours after the team joined the cause.

Several members of the campus community had argued for months that Wolfe had been slow — even negligent — in responding to several cases of racism on campus.

By the end of the week, the furor on their Columbia campus had slowly begun to wane.

That’s when Pinkel, who had stood by his striking players, announced that he would step down at season’s end. The winningest coach in school history revealed he had been diagnosed with lymphoma in May, and had undergone several rounds of treatment over the summer.

The 63-year-old Pinkel said his decision had nothing to do with the turmoil at Missouri, or with the team’s struggles this season. He said he had decided shortly after a PET scan last month that he wanted to spend more time with his family as he continued to fight the disease.

It was against that backdrop that the Tigers headed down Interstate 70 to Arrowhead Stadium for their game against BYU, which had been riding a five-game winning streak.

The Cougars trailed a field goal-fest 6-3 at halftime, but they briefly pulled ahead late in the third quarter, after Lock’s interception gave them good field position. Algernon Brown’s 11-yard touchdown run made it 10-6, silencing a sparse but heavily pro-Missouri crowd.

Missouri answered with arguably its two most important touchdowns of the season.

The first came on Lock’s go-ahead fade pass to Moore, who managed to get a foot down in the corner of the end zone early in the fourth quarter. It was the first TD pass thrown by the Tigers since Oct. 3 against South Carolina, a span of nearly five games.

On the ensuing offensive play, Mangum fumbled the ball while getting sacked. Moments later, Tyler Hunt barreled in from a yard out to give the Tigers a 20-10 lead — and give their beleaguered fans an opportunity to celebrate for the first time in weeks.

There were no protests or other incidents surrounding the game, though one fan was denied entry with a sign referencing “Concerned Student 1950” — the name of the activist group. A spokesman for the Chiefs said security made a mistake not letting the fan in.

Otherwise, the majority of signs referenced campus unity. And as the final minutes ticked off the clock, chants of “Gary Pinkel” began to rise from the Missouri fans still in the stands.

— Associated Press —

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Mizzou Men’s Basketball started its 2015-16 regular season with a win, as the Tigers defeated Wofford, 83-74, Friday night at Mizzou Arena.

Freshman forward Kevin Puryear (Blue Springs, Mo.) led the way with 20 points on 8-for-14 shooting from the field, along with five boards.  Sophomore guard Namon Wright (Los Angeles, Calif.) added 18 points and a career-high seven rebounds off the bench for the Tigers.

Mizzou had a well-rounded effort, as every player that saw minutes chipped in at least four points.  Freshman guard Terrence Phillips (Orange County, Calif.) turned in a great all-around performance, producing seven points, three rebounds and three assists, while junior forward Russell Woods (Chicago, Ill.) tallied nine points on 4-for-5 shooting from the floor.

The Tigers shot 56.0 percent from the field in the contest, their best output since the 2013-14 season.

Wofford jumped out to an early 8-2 lead, but a 20-2 Mizzou run, initiated by a zone press, gave the Tigers a 22-10 edge with 8:34 left in the first half. The run was capped off by steal from freshman guard K.J. Walton (Brownsburg, Ind.), leading to a fast break layup.  Mizzou went into halftime with 39-29 advantage over the Terriers.

The Tigers started the second half with the same press that had worked so well, but Wofford chipped away at Mizzou’s lead with a 9-2 run to close the gap to five, 47-42, with 13:38 on the clock.  Wright then scored three of his 15 second half points on a trey to up Mizzou’s lead back to eight.

After a three from Wofford to cut the Tiger edge to 74-67 with 1:50 left, Mizzou combined to shoot 9-of-10 from the charity stripe to ice the game away.

Mizzou’s depth was also on display throughout the contest, as its bench pumped in 42 of the team’s 83 points. The Tigers also outscored the Terriers 34-14 in the paint.

Mizzou looks for its next victory of the new season on Sunday, Nov. 15, as the team hosts Maryland-Eastern Shore at 5 p.m. CT at Mizzou Arena. The game will be broadcast on the SEC Network and have live radio coverage on the Tiger Network.

— Mizzou Athletics —

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Mizzou Women’s Basketball announced the signing of Jordan Chavis to a National Letter of Intent on Thursday. Chavis is a 5-7 guard from Central Davidson High School in Lexington, North Carolina.

“Jordan has great court vision and a very high basketball IQ,” head coach Robin Pingeton said. “She has great handles and can score in a variety of ways.”

As a junior at New Hope Christian Academy in Thomasville, North Carolina, Chavis averaged 9.2 points, 3.8 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 2.3 steals per game. She drained a team-best 45 shots from beyond the arc for a New Hope squad that went 29-2, won the National Independent School Athletic Association National Championship and finished last season ranked No. 24 nationally by USA Today. During her sophomore year, Chavis averaged 6.3 points, 2.6 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.4 steals per contest.

Chavis was the Most Valuable Player of the Tina Thompson Classic and was ranked the No. 10 recruit in the southeast region by WNY Hoops Reports.

— Mizzou Athletics —

COLUMBIA, Mo. – It all started back in 2007 when Mizzou Football wore white jerseys and gold pants as QB Chase Daniel led No. 4 Mizzou to a 36-28 victory over No. 2 Kansas at Arrowhead Stadium. That began a tradition that led to gold jerseys in 2008 and Nike Beast Mode uniforms in 2009. With Mizzou returning to Arrowhead for the first time since 2011 this Saturday against BYU, the Tigers will once again don special Nike uniforms to continue the tradition.

Prior to the season, Mizzou Assistant Athletic Director for Equipment Don Barnes came up with a uniform concept that Mizzou had never worn: a white base jersey-pant combo with black numbers and an anthracite Tiger stripe overlay  accompanied by a white helmet equipped with a chrome secondary Tiger logo and facemask. The uniform combination will also feature gloves with the anthracite Tiger stripe pattern. Sticking with tradition, Barnes and the entire Football staff decided that Arrowhead would be the perfect place to unveil the new uniform combination.  Below is a look at the history of special uniforms worn at Arrowhead.

2007: In what was arguably the biggest game for Mizzou in the Big 12 era, Gary Pinkel and company decided to bring back a uniform combo that had been a fan favorite for years. Mizzou had not worn the gold-pant, white-jersey combo in years despite fans calling for Coach Pinkel to bring the look back. With the eyes of the nation on Arrowhead for a top-five showdown that November night in 2007, Mizzou surprised the fans with the gold pants and the rest was history. Mizzou went on to defeat Kansas, 36-28, and earn the No. 1 ranking in the country the following week.

2008: One year removed from surprising fans with the white-jersey, gold-pant look, Mizzou flipped the script and unveiled gold jerseys for the first time in years. The uniforms garnered such high praise from Mizzou fans that they were arguably the inspiration for one of the fans’ favorite current looks – gold jerseys and black pants.

2009: After the success that Mizzou Football had on the field both in 2007 and 2008, Nike chose Mizzou as one of 10 schools to wear special Pro Combat uniforms during the 2009 season. Mizzou chose to once again unveil these against Kansas at Arrowhead. Mizzou’s Pro Combat uniforms were called ‘Beast Mode’ and that moniker was embroidered on the collars of each jersey. Inspiration for the white jersey, anthracite pant and black-on-black helmet combo was the speed of a tiger and the fact that Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri is home to many of the nation’s stealth bombers. Black-on-black helmets and pants signified that speed and stealth-like nature.

2015: Wanting to do something that had never been done at Mizzou, Barnes and his staff chose to go with this year’s look. As detailed above, the white-jersey, white-pant look is accompanied by a helmet with a chrome secondary Tiger logo and chrome face masks. The jerseys feature black numbers with an anthracite Tiger stripe overlay outlined in chrome.

The Whiteout set for Saturday is one of four uniform themes Mizzou put into place for the season, including the Tigers Stripe (now in its second season) and the annual #GoldRush and #Blackout games. The monochromatic uniform look will also be featured during Mizzou’s game vs. Tennessee next Saturday (Nov. 21) at Memorial Stadium. As in year’s past, the final home game of the season will serve as the team’s #Blackout game in which the Tigers will don all-black uniforms. The complete uniform combination for that game will be released Friday, Nov. 20.

— Mizzou Athletics —

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Mizzou Men’s Basketball head coach Kim Anderson has announced three signings for the program’s 2016 recruiting class, with future student-athletes Willie Jackson (Cleveland, Ohio), Reed Nikko (Maple Grove, Minn.) and Mitchell Smith (Van Buren, Ark.) inking with the Tigers.

“We’re excited about the young men who have signed their letters of intent to come to the University of Missouri to play basketball,” Anderson said. “We feel like we’ve addressed some needs for our program. One of our main goals was to recruit size. With all three guys, we’ve got some bigger players.

“The thing we’re always looking for is young men who have been successful at their previous institutions and who will be great representatives of our university. All three of these young men are like that. They’ve been extremely well-coached at the high school level. We look forward to welcoming them to Mizzou to be a part of our family.”

A 6-6 small forward, Jackson has been electric for Garfield Heights High School, averaging 18.0 points, 14.0 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game and helping head coach Sonny Johnson’s group to a 24-4 record as a junior in 2014-15. Standing 6-9, Nikko powered Maple Grove High School to a 23-4 record last season while averaging 9.6 points, 6.5 rebounds and 2.4 blocks per game for head coach Nick Schroeder. A 6-9 forward, Smith scored in bunches for Van Buren head coach Randy Loyd, averaging 18.1 points and 7.6 rebounds per game as a junior.

Jackson was named Cleveland.com Area Player of the Year following his junior campaign. On the Nike EYBL circuit for the King James Shooting Stars, Jackson averaged 8.4 points and a team-best 7.0 rebounds per game and led the group to a stout 13-4 record. Jackson chose the Tigers over offers from Boston College, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Temple and Wichita State, among others.

“Willie is a basketball player,” Anderson said. “What I mean by that is he can do a lot of different things. He’s a good defender and a guy who shoots the basketball well. He can drive to the basket. He comes from a winning program and was extremely well-coached in his high school and AAU basketball. Similar to Reed and Mitchell, he’s a person of high character who will be great for our program.”

Nikko, a traditional post-style player, also starred on the travel ball courts for Net Gain. As a sophomore in 2013-14, Nikko scored in double figures in 12 of Maple Grove’s 28 games. He chose to wear the Black & Gold over offers from Kansas State, Minnesota and Iowa.

“We’re looking forward to having Reed in our program,” Anderson said. “He’ll bring some size, which is something we’ll need, especially with the graduation of Ryan Rosburg. He’s a true back-to-the-basket player and has been very successful in high school. He’s continued to grow as a player every year. We feel he’ll continue to mature and become a great player in the SEC.”

Smith moved well up and down the floor to get Van Buren to Arkansas’ Class 7A semifinals last season. He played in the high school offseason with the Arkansas Wings of the Nike EYBL, shooting 46.7-percent from the floor and averaging 4.1 rebounds and a team-best 1.1 blocks per game during the squad’s 2015 season.

“Mitchell is a young man who addresses the need for more size in our program,” Anderson said. “He is very skilled and has continued to improve every year. He comes from a great high school program, and we feel like he has the opportunity to be able to contribute immediately, as do Willie and Reed.”

Mizzou opens the 2015-16 season at Mizzou Arena on Friday, Nov. 13, vs. Wofford as part of the CBE Hall of Fame Classic. The contest tips off at 8 p.m. and will be broadcast on SEC Network+.

— Mizzou Athletics —

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Mizzou Women’s Basketball was picked to finish sixth in the Southeastern Conference in a vote of the league’s coaches. The selection is the highest preseason ranking for the Tigers since joining the SEC. Junior forward Jordan Frericks (Quincy, Ill.) was voted second-team Preseason All-SEC.

Mizzou received 94 total votes and each coach also voted for an eight-player All-SEC first-team, second-team and Player of the Year.

Frericks earned second-team All-SEC honors last season after leading the team with 13.2 points, 9.9 rebounds, 1.5 steals and 1.4 blocks per game. She led the SEC in rebounding, finished fifth in blocks, 11th in scoring and 12th in steals.

South Carolina was predicted to repeat as league champion and Gamecocks senior guard Tiffany Mitchell was named SEC Preseason Player of the Year for the second consecutive season. Tennessee was picked second, followed by Texas A&M, Mississippi State and Kentucky.

SEC Coaches Preseason Predicted Order of Finish
1. South Carolina
2. Tennessee
3. Texas A&M
4. Mississippi State
5. Kentucky
6. Missouri
7. Ole Miss
8. Arkansas
9. Georgia
10. LSU
11. Vanderbilt
12. Florida
13. Auburn
14. Alabama

— Mizzou Athletics —

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Mizzou Football senior RB Tyler Hunt (Huntsville, Mo.) has been named a nominee for the Burlsworth Trophy, as announced by the Burlsworth Trophy and the Springdale, (Ark.) Rotary Club on Tuesday (Nov. 10). The Burlsworth Trophy is given to the most outstanding football player in America who began his career as a walk-on. Hunt is one of 55 players on the list and one of eight SEC players.

The Westran High School product has 139 yards on 20 rushing attempts and has also hauled in five catches for 201 yards, the latter of which is the third-best on the team. He is also responsible for Mizzou’s four longest plays from scrimmage this season, including a 72-yard run vs. Mississippi State and a 78-yard TD catch in the opener vs. SEMO.

The Trophy is named in honor of former University of Arkansas Walk-On and All-American offensive lineman, Brandon Burlsworth. Without one D1 scholarship offer, Brandon Burlsworth walked on at the University of Arkansas in 1994. He became a three-year starter and was eventually named an All-American in 1998. Burlsworth was selected as the 63rd overall pick by the Indianapolis Colts in the 1999 NFL draft, but was tragically killed in a car accident 11 days later. The Burlsworth Foundation was created in his memory and supports the physical and spiritual needs of children, in particular those children who have limited opportunities.

Springdale Rotary Club will host an awards ceremony on Dec. 7th in Springdale, Ark., to honor the three finalists and to announce the 2015 winner.

Hunt and the Tigers will host BYU at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Mo., this Saturday at 6:30 p.m.

— Mizzou Athletics —

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — University of Missouri officials say the football team will resume its regular activities following the resignation of the university system president.

Athletics Director Mack Rhoades and head football coach Gary Pinkel said in a joint statement that the team will resume practicing Tuesday, as it typically does.

The announcement came hours after university system President Tim Wolfe said he was stepping down amid criticism over his administration’s handling of racial issues.

Black student groups that complained for months about Wolfe’s leadership got a big boost over the weekend when 30 black football players said they wouldn’t take part in team activities until Wolfe was gone.

Pinkel sent a tweet of support for his protesting players on Sunday.

Missouri plays BYU at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.

— Associated Press —

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Senior twin sisters Maddie Stock (Town & Country, Mo.) and Morgan Stock (Town & Country, Mo.) combined to score 32 points and drained nine 3-pointers in a 97-54 exhibition victory over Quincy on Monday evening at Mizzou Arena. As a team, the Tigers grabbed 15 steals and dished out 20 assists.

“I thought we moved the ball really well and our shot selection was outstanding,” head coach Robin Pingeton said. “I’m proud of our kids, and for the most part, I was very pleased with the first two exhibition games.”

Mizzou outscored the Lady Hawks 40-14 in the paint and 62-12 in bench points. Maddie Stock finished with a game-high 17 points, including five 3-pointers in eight attempts. She also had a game-best five assists. Morgan Stock added 15 points, including four triples. Freshman Sophie Cunningham (Columbia, Mo.) added 15 points with three steals.

Lianna Doty (St. Louis, Mo.) made her first start since returning from an injury that sidelined her last year and scored 13 points on 4-for-5 shooting, including a perfect 3-for-3 mark from long range. Bri Porter (Columbia, Mo.) also scored 13 points and grabbed six rebounds in reserve action. Jordan Frericks (Quincy, Ill.) recorded game-highs with eight rebounds and four steals.

For the night, Mizzou shot 60 percent (37-for-62) from the floor, 52 percent (14-for-27) from 3-point range and 69 percent (9-for-13) from the foul line.

Anika Webster led Quincy with 15 points while Kara Gerbus added 14 points. The Lady Hawks were limited by the Mizzou defense to a 35 percent (18-for-52) shooting mark from the floor.

Mizzou begins the regular season on Friday with a 7:05 p.m. CT tipoff at Missouri State. The game will be streamed live on ESPN3.

— Mizzou Athletics —