No. 14 Mizzou coasts to 30-point win over South Carolina
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
No. 14 Mizzou hoops just knows how to respond.
Head coach Dennis Gates' team, once again, bounced-back after loss with a dominant 101-71 win over South Carolina, in the second-to-last game at Mizzou Arena this season.
It's the second-straight home game that MU has surpassed the century-mark.
Outside of the first few minutes of Tuesday night's contest, the Gamecocks never really came close to touching the Tigers. When South Carolina was in striking distance early, Mizzou took care of them with a 23-6 scoring run midway through the first half. It was a run that head coach Lamont Paris' could never come back from.
Gates' team shot a scorching 62 percent from the field and 57 percent from 3-point range in their 10th Southeastern Conference win of the season.
Once again, guard Caleb Grill led the scoring charge for Mizzou. He ended the night with a team-high 22 points off of four 3-pointers, along with five rebounds, four steals and two assists. MU is still undefeated when Grill scores 10 or more points in a ball game.
Anthony Robinson (14), Mark Mitchell (13), Tony Perkins (13), Tamar Bates (11) and Jacob Crews (10) all also got into double-figures in the routing of the Gamecocks.
Although Mizzou did thoroughly out-shoot South Carolina, the team from the other Columbia actually out-did MU on the boards. The Tigers lost the rebounding battle, 27-25, with Gamecocks star Collin Murray-Boyles leading the charge for his team with seven rebounds. As Gates' alluded to earlier in the week, Murray-Boyle was a struggle to contain. The forward, who ranks as one of the best shooters and rebounders in the SEC, ended up with a game-high 27 points, as he only missed one shot on the night.
Just days after yielding the second-most turnovers of the season in the brutal loss to Arkansas, Gates' team did a 180 in that margin. Mizzou forced South Carolina to turn the ball over 14 times, while MU only lost the ball seven times.
Up next - Mizzou will continue its fight for the No. 4 seed in the SEC Tournament. The Tigers will hit the road to face Vanderbilt on Saturday, March 1. Tip off is slated for 5 p.m.
