Bitter, not Sweet: No. 15 seed Princeton makes it look easy, ends MU's season

Finding a silver lining, MU finishes its season with a 25-10 record — its most wins since the 2011-12 season. MU also lost to a No. 15 seed that season: Norfolk State.

Much like Arizona’s top-10 offense did against Princeton, Missouri’s offense was nowhere to be found against a disciplined defense. The Tigers went on a scoring drought of more than three minutes, allowing Princeton to open a 12-point lead in the first half, from which MU would never recover.

Missouri’s heroic shooters and scorers all season — D’Moi Hodge, Kobe Brown and DeAndre Gholston — went ice cold against Princeton’s D. Hodge was 1-for-6, Brown 5-for-13 and Gholston started 3-for-9 before finishing with 19 mostly garbage-time points in the closing minutes of a 15-point loss.

Princeton coach Mitch Henderson credited his team’s grit for being able to handle MU’s offense.

“We’re a really tough group,” Henderson said. “We can switch. They know exactly what they’re supposed to do. They keep their body in front of their guys. Just tough-nose defense. Our league, also, it’s so hard to guard in our league. We’ve seen a little bit of everything.”

After scoring 23 points against Utah State, Hodge was limited to just two points and for the fourth time all season was held without a 3-pointer.

“They’re a great team. They had a great game plan,” Gholston said. “I believe they were packing the lane and not allowing ball drives from us and not allowing us to drive and kick and get shots for a guy like D’Moi Hodge.”

Brown was held to 12 points after a 19-point performance against Utah State. In all, Missouri shot just 41% from the field on 25-of-61 shooting. This included just a 6-of-22 mark from behind the arc.

While MU found itself in a rut, Princeton’s offense came alive after scoring just 59 points against Arizona on Thursday.

March has its heroes, and Ryan Langborg became one of them. He helped Princeton become the third No. 15 seed to reach the Sweet 16 in the past three years.

The 6-foot-4 senior from San Diego dropped 22 points on MU. He started off with seven of Princeton’s first 10 points to help build an early lead.

“It’s always nice to see the ball go in,” Langborg said. “I have to give credit to these guys next to me. Tosan (Evbuomwan) was finding me, and I wouldn’t have been able to do any of that without them.”

Evbuomwan, who’s been Princeton’s heart and soul all season, was limited to nine points and nine rebounds. But, Evbuomwan finished with five assists, which was the second-most by any player behind Matt Allocco’s seven.

From behind the arc, Princeton knocked down a total of 12 3-pointers against MU. This was after converting four against the Wildcats.

“The shots weren’t going in for any of us the last game, so seeing the ball go through the net was great at the start of the game,” Langborg said.

Seven of those 3-pointers came in the final 20 minutes. MU closed Princeton’s lead to six midway through the second half. Missouri switched to a zone defense that featured Mohamed Diarra guarding the paint. Diarra ended up with two blocks, but Princeton was able to exploit MU’s defense by finding open shots in the corners.

Once MU closed in on Princeton’s lead, the team from New Jersey launched a barrage of 3-pointers.

“I feel like we did some good stuff during that stretch to cut the lead down, but obviously they made some shots,” Hodge said. “They made some wide open 3s.”

Joining Langborg with his four triples, Blake Peters came off the bench and knocked down five of his own on his way to scoring 17 points. All five came under the 12-minute mark of the second half as Princeton built its lead to as much as 21.

While MU heads back to Columbia, Princeton will travel to the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville to face the winner of No. 3 seed Baylor and No. 6 seed Creighton.

Missouri fell short of its aspirations to play in Houston, Texas, on April 1 and 3, but it doesn’t diminish the accomplishments of a team that was picked to finish 11th in the Southeastern Conference.

“I’m proud of my players. I’m proud of my program. It’s not the outcome that we wanted, but my hat’s off to Princeton and obviously the path that they’re on earning a bid to the Sweet 16,” Gates said. “I have nothing but respect for (Henderson), and he had his guys prepared. I had my guys prepared, and they were the better team today.”