11/26/2022 basketball Edit

Mizzou flattens Houston Christian for 7th-straight win, 105-69

Drew King • PowerMizzou

Basketball Writer

DeAndre Gholston’s teammates kept telling him to be himself.

The Milwaukee transfer has struggled to find his place on his new team through the first six games of the season. Though Gholston had earned a spot in the starting lineup, he was shooting below 40% from the field. He had just two points in Mizzou’s win over Coastal Carolina on Wednesday.

The graduate senior guard didn’t give up on himself. He spent more time in the gym getting shots up and trusted in what his teammates and coaches were telling him. It showed on Saturday, as Gholston led the Tigers with 22 points in a 105-69 win over Houston Christian (1-6).

“Today showed, just being myself, I can still make plays but be aggressive first,” Gholston said. “I think it starts at the defensive end. I picked my intensity up, just kept running and my teammates found me. And it just worked out for me today.”

Missouri head coach Dennis Gates said Gholston’s been a consistent presence on the defensive end, averaging a steal per game. He proved it again against the Huskies picking up a pair of steals. But Gates knew the Gary, Ind. native wasn’t playing as well on offense as he would’ve liked.

Gholston got his buckets in a variety of ways. He’s always had a knack for getting to the rim, which often leads to layups or a trip to the free throw line — Gholston hit all seven of his foul shots on Saturday. But he also had his best day shooting from outside, going 3-5 on 3-pointers.

By dropping 22 points, Gholston became the fifth player to lead the Tigers in scoring this year. It’ll help Mizzou (7-0) continue to be a team that’s tough to gameplan against.

“It was a really hard scout because we had to prepare for so many guys and for so many different things that they do,” HCU head coach Ron Cottrell said. “Coaches, you know, we talk about scouting guys and plays and how we're going to guard certain things. You can't really prepare for them like that.”

Tigers continue to lean on connection

Many of Mizzou’s players either knew each other or knew of each other before stepping foot on campus in Columbia. There was a widespread feeling of not only wanting to win for themselves but wanting to see each other succeed.

That’s shown up in the connection displayed by the Tigers early on in the year. A team that features a dozen newcomers on the roster currently leads the nation averaging 22.3 assists per game. Missouri dropped another 28 dimes against the Huskies on Saturday with just 11 turnovers.

“Coming in this summer, it felt like we already knew each other here,” Gholston said. “We just connected very well and it's just showing right now. I think as we keep going throughout the season, there's gonna be tough times. But as long as we stay connected, it'll be good for us.”

The high assist total has been a team effort — no individual player has had more than seven assists in a game. Nine different players were credited with one against HCU. Senior forward Noah Carter and graduate senior guard Tre Gomillion became the sixth and seventh players to lead the team in assists, handing out five each.

“I feel like Gates did a great job recruiting guys like that,” Gomillion said. “It's only gonna get better throughout the year.”

Up and down on defense

The Tigers couldn’t have played better on the defensive end through the first seven minutes of Saturday's game. Houston Christian missed all of its first 11 shots from the floor. The Huskies had two trips to the free throw line, which helped them get on the board. But by the 13-minute mark of the first half, Mizzou led 25-3.

“To get that lead you have to be able to get stops and I thought our guys did that throughout the game,” Gates said. “Collectively, I thought the scouting report, we were able to dial in. We thought they were going to do some things but our defensive pressure didn't allow them to execute as much.”

Missouri didn’t keep the same intensity throughout the rest of the game, though. After calling timeout when the hosts went up by 22, the Huskies made all of their next seven field goals. They went on to make 50% in the second half of the game.

Gates said it’s something the team will have to continue to work on.

“The other end of it is, we did give us some driving lanes that we got to go back and watch film to get better on because there was some angles and some rotations that we missed out,” Gates said.

Up next

Mizzou is now 7-0 for the first time since the 2013-14 season. The team will head out for its first road game of the year, taking on Wichita State (3-2) on Tuesday at 7 p.m.