Geist, Puryear and strategy give the Tigers a big win
It’s the debate that rages on airwaves and across the Internet: Up three, final seconds. Do you foul or play it out?
In a 59-55 win over No. 21 Tennessee on Wednesday night, Missouri did the perfect amount of both.
After two Jordan Geist free throws, the Tigers held a 57-54 lead as Tennessee inbounded the ball with 14.4 seconds to go. James Daniel III brought the ball across midcourt and was harassed by Geist.
As the clock ticked down under five seconds, Geist grabbed Daniel to commit a foul. It played out exactly the way Cuonzo Martin had hoped it would in the timeout preceding the play.
“When he crosses halfcourt, gauge it,” Martin said. “If he’s shooting the ball, then don’t foul him. But gauge it, if the clock can tick as he steady dribbles, then foul. And he did a good job of taking time off the clock. “Press up and see the clock tick, tick, tick and once you see the clock down and he’s about to make a play or pass, foul him.”
Daniel missed the first free throw and made the second.
“We had it set up where it could be a three or it could go to the basket,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said of the final possession. “We messed around too much in the backcourt with it.
“Even with that, if we’d have made the two free throws we could have extended it a little bit.”
Kevin Puryear then iced Missouri’s best win of the season with a pair of free throws on the other end, giving the Tigers a two-possession lead with just four seconds to go.
“I was pretty confident that I was going to sink them,” Puryear said. “I know I’m a good free throw shooter. I shoot a lot of free throws every day. At that point it’s just being poised enough to knock down those free throws.”
The points were Puryear’s 11th and 12th of the night, capping a double-double and ending an eight game stretch in which he had failed to reach double figures. Martin recently brought him off the bench, replacing him in the starting lineup with Jontay Porter.
“I’ve been doing a lot better,” he said. “I have a tremendous amount of trust in Coach Martin and what he wants. My job is just to go in there and play as hard as I can play, play at a high level and everything will take care of itself.
Together with Geist, the Tigers found two unlikely heroes in this game. Geist had the turnover that led to Florida’s game-winning layup two weeks ago and then missed the final shot in the 65-63 loss to Arkansas on Saturday. But it was Geist that made two big free throws with 14.4 seconds left and then his defense that allowed the Tigers to finally break their late game hex against the Volunteers.
“He plays like that from start to finish,” Kassius Robertson said. “he’s a tough-nosed kid man. I’m really, really, really happy that he’s on our team. He makes plays for us. Hit two big free throws. We’re all really happy he’s on our team.”
The end result was a resume-building win, Missouri’s first over a ranked opponent since beating No. 18 UCLA in December of 2013.
“For me it’s a ballgame against a talented team,” Martin said. “Whether a team comes here ranked or not, we have to do everything in our power to protect the home court. For it to be a ranked opponent, I think it’s great for our guys. It’s great for that reason right there, for everybody else involved. But for me, it’s a job, it’s what we do. We put ourselves in position to win a game, now we’ve got to focus on the next one.”
The next one is at 3 o’clock on Saturday against Texas A&M.