COLUMBIA, Mo.- The Savannah State men's basketball team opened the 2016 portion of their schedule with a 81-50 loss to Missouri in a game played at Mizzou Arena before a crowd of 6,037.
A pair of free throws by Chris Martin gave SSU the early lead. Missouri answered with a 3-pointer but Savannah State's Lenjo Kilo responded with a layup to put SSU ahead 4-3. Savannah State was able to keep up with Mizzou for the first 11 minutes of the game.
SSU trailed 16-12 with 11:10 remaining in the first half but a 12-2 run by Missouri put Savannah State down by 14 with 6:18 on the clock.
The Tigers trimmed their deficit to nine with just under four minutes left following a 3-pointer from Isaiah Felder and two more from Teslim Idris. Missouri scored the final seven point of the half and took a 41-25 lead into intermission.
Missouri shot 70.8 percent from the floor in the opening period and made 75 percent of their 3-point shots.
Savannah State shot 30.3 percent from the field in the opening half.
Mizzou (7-6) started the second half with a 12-0 run.
SSU did not score until Felder made a 3-pointer at the 15:30 mark.
A dunk by Wes Clark gave Missouri a 30 point lead with 12:54 remaining and a jumper by Namon Wright gave Mizzou their largest lead of the evening at 36 points with 3:19 left.
SSU outscored their opponents 7-2 the rest of the way.
Felder led SSU (4-7) with nine points and five rebounds while Brian Pearson had a game-high nine rebounds for Savannah State to go along with his six points. Clark led three Missouri players in double figures with 22 points.
Missouri out-rebounded SSUÂ 40-30.
Tip-ins:
Savannah State played their last non-conference road game of the season.
Missouri made all 12 of their free throw attempts in the second half
Up next:
Savannah State will play at Florida A&M on January 5.
Missouri will play at Georgia on Jan. 6
