Missouri can't push past Princeton, bringing unexpected season to a close

SACRAMENTO, CA — Princeton did what no other mid-major team had done to Missouri all season long. It slowed down both Kobe Brown and D’Moi Hodge, the team’s leading scorers, holding the duo to 14 points combined on 6-19 shooting. It took care of the ball, only turning it over nine times against a Mizzou team that averaged 16.9 turnovers forced per game.

It beat the No. 7 seed Tigers. MU went into Saturday’s game 13-1 against teams outside the SEC this year. They exited the game 13-21, falling to the No. 15 seed Ivy League Tigers inside the Golden 1 Center, 78-63.

“I credit (Princeton head coach) Mitch Henderson and his group. They did an outstanding job not just in our game, even the previous game,” Missouri head coach Dennis Gates said. “But they made some shots. They did some great things. But I love my group. We're not judged by one game. I adamantly will continue to say that. But we definitely gotta credit our opponents for an outstanding game that they played.”

Princeton (23-8, 10-4 Ivy League) mostly did what it wanted on offense to start the game. Missouri overextended on many of its close-outs, either leaping in the air to contest a 3-pointer or running out of control, allowing Princeton to use pump-and-go drives to get to the rim. Senior guard Ryan Langborg scored 11 of the team’s first 13 points, sinking three treys and giving the Ivy League Tigers a six-point lead. Mizzou was never able to recover.

MU struggled offensively, too. Senior forward Noah Carter found some success early on, hitting one triple and two shots inside the arc for the team’s first seven points of the game. But nobody else could find a rhythm.

Princeton’s forwards crashed the paint anytime Brown got the ball in the post. The senior forward has seen double teams on the block all season long — it wasn’t anything he hadn’t experienced before. But unlike many of those other times, he couldn’t find his way through it.

“They had high hands, so I couldn't see out of the post,” Brown said. “A lot of times, teams double, but their hands are low, so it's easier to facilitate from the pumps. But they did a good job taking away vision.”

The team gained some traction late in the first half. Hodge scored on the fast break, senior point guard Nick Honor knocked down a 3 from the left corner and fellow senior point guard Sean East II sank a floater at the buzzer to give Mizzou a 7-0 run and cut the deficit to 33-26 heading into halftime. The team got a stop on the first possession of the second half and fed Brown the ball in the post for a layup to make it a two-score game again.

But Missouri missed all of its next five field goal attempts, allowing Princeton to zoom back in front by 12 by the under-16 media timeout. The SEC Tigers cut the lead down to single digits two more times in the second half, but the Ivy League Tigers extinguished every spark MU tried to ignite.

“We held the lead for 30 seconds in the entire game,” Gates said. “Every time we got the lead or when they had the lead, we cut it to six, they came back down and did what a good team would do: make a shot or make a play. It just wasn't our day to make those plays or make the same shots.”

Carter ended the night with 14 points, trailing only senior guard DeAndre Gholston among Mizzou’s players, who posted 19. It was a disappointing finish for a team that had ended a 13-year drought in the NCAA tournament and won 25 games throughout the season. But Gates doesn't want to forget about what his team accomplished. They’ll always be the Tigers squad that made Missouri basketball relevant again — the team full of mid-major and junior college transfers that was picked to finish 11th in the SEC preseason poll and overachieved at every step of the year.

“When it comes down to reflection, I've always appreciated my guys from the very, very beginning of our conversations and journey,” Gates said. “They've done a tremendous job. They've done everything that I've asked them to do. They've done even more, right? What they've been able to do together is 20 years from now we'll look back, 10 years now from we'll look back, five years from now we'll look back and see how important it was what they've done.”

Saturday marked the final college basketball game for Hodge, Gholston and senior guards Tre Gomillion and Ben Sternberg.

All four players got to know Gates during their time playing in the Horizon League. When Gates was hired at Mizzou, they trusted him with their last year of eligibility.

Each player filled an important role for the Tigers this season: Hodge broke the program’s single-season record for steals with 91 steals and was the team’s second-leading scorer averaging 14.7 points per game. Gholston was the Tigers’ third-leading scorer, averaging 10.9 points, and made several clutch buckets, including two buzzer-beating game-winners. Gomillion and Sternberg were both team captains, helping Gates instill his vision for the culture of the team. Gomillion functioned essentially as an assistant coach while battling injury throughout the second half of the year. Sternberg became a fan favorite among the team’s walk-ons by hitting a halfcourt shot in his first game in a Missouri uniform.

All four players believe Gates can take the program to new heights. They’re happy they were able to be a part of the first team who could help him do it. It’s what they hope they’ll be remembered for.

“I just want to be remembered as a group of guys who loved each other on and off the court,” Sternberg said. “We were together every day at the crib, in the gym, obviously. Not only that, but we want to be known as, like, the stepping stone for Coach (Gates). Coach, obviously it's his first year. We want him to create the culture here. Now the teams to come will follow us.”

“I'll piggyback on what Ben said: Building the culture,” Hodge said. “Going to Mizzou wasn't a hard decision for me, especially playing for Coach (Gates) at Cleveland State. Just building the foundation of what we know he can be and what his goals are was really good. The Mizzou fans backing us and having faith in us to come in here and do what we do means a lot for the Columbia community. I thank them for embracing me and my team. I appreciate Mizzou for that.”

“Same thing: laying a foundation, building that culture back in Columbia, getting those fans back involved,” Gomillion said. “But just doing things we did, we weren't supposed to be here at all in the first place. We were only supposed to make it to the semifinals of the SEC. I mean, at the end of the day, we lost today, but we have a lot to be proud of.”

Missouri was getting picked apart inside in the first half of its game against Princeton. The Ivy League Tigers were able to get by Mizzou’s front line of defense, draw a weakside help defender and find an open man slashing to the rim to get points up. Gates sent in junior forward Mohamed Diarra to change that.

The big man from Montreuil, France, had gone six games without registering a block. But on Saturday, he filled his role well, altering several shots in the paint and rejecting two. It gave the 6-foot-10 forward momentum to build on entering an offseason in which Gates will try to develop him for a more consistent role.

“One thing I can say about Mohamed is that he's gonna he's gonna play as hard as he can, whether that's scoring the ball or just playing defense, getting blocks,” Brown said. “He's gonna be a presence at all times.”

Missouri finished the season at 25-10 overall and 11-7 in conference play. Gates is set to bring in a junior college prospect ranked in the top three by JUCORecruiting.com, three freshmen ranked in the top 150 by Rivals.com and two walk-on freshmen. The Tigers have nine players on scholarship with at least one year of eligibility left — Gates will wait to see how many leave for professional leagues or enter the transfer portal before making any additions to his 2023 class.

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