Missouri refuses to lie down but still loses to Iowa State on the road.
Welcome to the land of the moral victory.
There was no rejoicing after Missouri’s 85-78 loss at Iowa State (16-12, 6-9). No celebration, from the Tigers at least, at losing their fourth in a row and 10th in their last 11. But it was slightly more tolerable.
Welcome to the end of a continuously rocky Missouri basketball season, where a seven-point loss to a mediocre foe qualifies as improvement. Even though the Tigers fell for the seventh time in their last seven trips to Hilton Coliseum, the margin looked a lot better than Missouri’s 23 point average deficit in it’s previous four road games; the competitiveness of the 40 minutes vastly better than Missouri’s recent tendency to excel for bursts and later collapse for spurts.
Such is the world of morale-building for a team that finds itself at 11-15 (4-11 Big 12 Conference) with a game to go in the regular season.
Indeed the Tigers had ample opportunity to lie down — and it looked like they might — when Iowa State closed the first half on a 9-0 run to lead at the midpoint 35-29.
But refusing to go the way of its effort at Colorado, when a 15-point lead turned into an 18-point loss, Missouri opened the second half on a 13-3 run of its own.
“I’m just really proud of them for doing that on the road with all that has happened to them,” coach Melvin Watkins said on KFRU/1400 AM after the game, “to come out here and try to fight till the end to get a win. We didn’t get it, but we did, I thought, play hard for long periods of time.”
Later in the second half, Missouri fell behind 60-50 with under 10 minutes to play and yet again fought back to cut that lead to 60-57. Despite getting the score within five twice in the last couple of minutes, though, all the Tigers were left with from the handful of effort-driven runs was slightly heightened spirits.
Coming off a 2-for-11 shooting night, Jimmy McKinney shot 8-of-12 to score 19 points. Thomas Gardner broke his spell of starting well and finishing invisibly, scoring a consistent 24 on 9-of-21 shooting, and, more impressively, committing no turnovers.
McKinney, even in a loss, said the effects of holding a more even-keel for the full game gave the Tigers their improved offense (it was just the third time in its past 10 games Missouri scored more than 60).
“Just making plays, man,” McKinney said. “We’re just out there trying to play a full 40 minutes. Go out and play hard.”
With another loss in its back pocket, all Missouri has to point to is its hard play. And McKinney, despite the season’s hardships, doesn’t want it to end. He said he and his teammates could only build on this one, while getting ready for a conference tournament that will in all probability finalize his collegiate career.
“I hope the crowd comes out and supports me and Kap (Kevin Young),” McKinney said of Sunday’s senior day at Mizzou Arena, “and we can get that win so we can have some more confidence going to the Big 12 tournament.”