Alabama Men’s Basketball Falls To Missouri, 69-60

The Alabama men’s basketball team fell to Missouri, 69-60, Wednesday night in Coleman Coliseum. Freshman Collin Sexton led all scorers with 23 point to register his 10th 20-point game of the season.

Sophomore Dazon Ingram reached double figures, contributing 10 points to go along with four rebounds, while junior Donta Hall added nine points, four rebounds and a steal.

Missouri (14-8, 4-5 SEC) shot 53.2 percent from the field (25-of-47) and held the Crimson Tide (14-8, 5-4 SEC) to just 35.4 percent shooting from the floor (17-of-48) to give Alabama just its second loss in Coleman Coliseum this season (10-2).

“Tonight just wasn’t a great night for us at either end of the floor,” Alabama head coach Avery Johnson said. “The physicality of Missouri just overwhelmed us from start to finish. They were physical, they were passionate and I tried to warn our team about this the last couple of days in practice, but they didn’t respond. We have to do a better job of helping them respond.

“Give coach [Cuonzo] Martin a lot of credit. His team was ready to play and they played like a team that had their backs against the wall. We played like we were entitled a little bit and it just wasn’t a good night for us. I’m very disappointed with this loss and I shared with our team that in the SEC, anybody can get beat on any given night, and hopefully they heed that warning and we will be able to find a level of consistency as the season goes on.”

The Tigers set the tone in the first half, shooting 56.0 percent from the floor (14-of-25) including 5-of-11 from three-point land, but Alabama finished the stanza off strong, using a 14-4 run over the final 5:04 to trail 35-33 at intermission.

Mizzou took the 8-7 edge at the first media timeout, converting three straight field goals at the 15:44 mark and continued to knock down baskets, extending its lead to 19-14 after back-to-back three pointers with 11:45 left in the half. The Tigers extended their lead to as many as 12, 31-19, with 5:04 on the clock. However, the momentum shifted as Sexton capped off the Crimson Tide’s run with a buzzer-beater three.

After trading baskets in the opening minutes of the second half, Sexton knotted the score at 39 apiece after two free throws, but Mizzou’s Kassius Robertson took back the lead with a layup to lead 41-39 at the 15:36 mark. After Alabama tied the game up for the third time in the half, 44-44, Missouri stretched its lead to 56-49, knocking down five of its last six at the 7:43 mark and never looked back.

Missouri’s defense put the Tigers over the top, holding the Tide to just 22.2 percent shooting from the floor (6-of-27) in the second half, to go along with dominating the glass, 37-27, in the contest.

Robertson led the Tiger offense with 22 points, shooting 4-of-8 from beyond the arc, while adding four rebounds and four assists.

Alabama will next begin a stretch of playing four of its next six games away from home when it travels to Gainesville, Fla., to square off against the No. 23/24 Florida Gators this Saturday. The game will tip off at 3 p.m. CT and will be televised on ESPN.