Missouri had a glaring item on its to-do list before hosting Auburn on Wednesday night.
Missouri (12-4, 2-1 Southeastern Conference) had to work on its free throws before welcoming Auburn (10-6, 1-2) to Columbia, Mo., for a battle of the Tigers.
During its 76-69 loss at Ole Miss on Saturday, Missouri shot just 12-for-24 at the line, sinking to 66.3% efficiency for the season — worst among SEC schools.
“We gotta be able to make plays in that moment,” Missouri coach Dennis Gates said after the Ole Miss loss. “We gotta come away with two in a row. And if we’re able to do that, it’s a different ball game. Everyone was able to get there. The guys that I thought were able to shoot got to the line. … We’re all better shooters than that. We see it in practice. We just gotta be able to maximize the opportunities in the game.
“We’ll keep and continue to work on them.”
Forward Mark Mitchell leads Missouri with 17.4 points and 5.3 rebounds per game. But he is shooting just 69% from the charity stripe.
Jayden Stone averages 13.9 points for Missouri, but he is hitting 69.7% of his free throws. Lead guard Anthony Robinson II averages 11.0 points and 4.1 assists, but he is just a 66.1% free-throw shooter.
Center Shawn Phillips Jr. has become a target for intentional fouls while missing 18 of his first 30 free throws for Missouri.
After losing SEC games at Georgia 104-100 in overtime and at home to Texas A&M 90-88, Auburn turned things around with a 95-73 victory over then-No. 15 Arkansas.
Forward Keyshawn Hall poured in 32 points as Auburn rolled over the Razorbacks for a confidence-building victory.
“We lost three games by one possession,” Hall said. “(The coaches) just try to keep saying, ‘We’re there, we’re there, we can do this.’ They try to make us keep going and keep fighting. That’s why we came out playing hard, and we knew what we could do.”
Auburn coach Steven Pearl said his team put itself in a desperate situation, then responded.
“I mean, we had to get that win,” Pearl said. “It didn’t matter who it was against. We had to win that one, because you can’t dig yourself into a 0-3 hole in this conference and expect to have any real success.”
Hall leads Auburn with 21.7 points and 7.8 rebounds per game. The team has four other scorers averaging double figures: Tahaad Pettiford (14.3), Kevin Overton (12.9), Elyjah Freeman (10.4) and KeShawn Murphy (10.1).
–Field Level Media
