Nick Honor had a brilliant first half in the Tigers’ 82-53 win over Lindenwood on Sunday.

The graduate point guard had a team-high 11 points, shooting 3-7 from outside, and also chipped in four rebounds, an assist and a steal, guiding his team to a 40-25 lead at halftime. Through 16 minutes of playing time, he had a plus/minus of positive-15.

Honor got too aggressive in the second half, though, getting whistled for two fouls in the opening 68 seconds. Honor went to the bench with three fouls, and Lindenwood proceeded to go on an 11-4 run, trimming Mizzou’s lead to single digits.

“Nick’s a hack,” Missouri head coach Dennis Gates said. “Nick gets impatient because the ball is right there and he just wants to take it.”

When Gates first recruited the Clemson transfer, he pointed out that Honor had too many possessions where he wasn’t putting pressure on the ball. Gates and associate head coach C.Y. Young broke down film with Honor, showing him how they expect their guards to play full-court defense. They told him he needed to leverage his speed to turn the ball-handler, and do so without fouling.

“Well, he's doing the full-court part,” Gates said. “Now he has to transition into not fouling so much and reaching.”

Honor re-entered the game at the first media timeout of the half and helped push his team back in front by a comfortable distance. He didn’t commit another foul for the rest of the evening and finished the game with 11 points, five rebounds, two assists and a steal.

Honor proved he had a positive influence on the court. He’s hoping he’ll do a better job of staying on it next time.

“Coach Gates has been calling me a hack for about, at least, a couple of weeks. I disagree,” Honor said. “(What changed was) just moving my feet and watching (the ball-handler's) waist and just sticking with our principles. I get a little, you know, aggressive at times on that end, trying to get a steal, but I'll try to improve as the game goes on.”

After riding the bench in Missouri’s win over Penn on Friday, Mosley saw 14 minutes of action against Lindenwood.

Gates has called Mosley the team’s best passer on multiple occasions and the Missouri State transfer guard flashed his playmaking ability often throughout the night. He was credited with three assists, all of them coming from alley-oops. He also had a few hockey assists — passes that led to someone else earning a dime.

He was a bit out of control at times, committing a team-high four turnovers. On one play, Mosley tried tossing it up to freshman forward Aidan Shaw from midcourt. The pass was off the mark for an alley-oop but Shaw still came down with the ball, avoiding the turnover.

Gates said he wasn’t overly concerned about the team’s 22-16 assist-to-turnover ratio, which was lower than Missouri's first two games. He actually liked that Mosley and Shaw tried to make the highlight play happen.

“I love the fact that we are being unselfish,” Gates said. “I love the fact that, you know, our guys are willing to throw Aidan Shaw a lob beyond halfcourt and Aidan Shaw was running the lane to get those certain looks. I love the fact that our guys are playing unselfish and I thought they overpassed … As long as it's embedded with unselfishness, I'm OK with it.”

As the lead grew out of reach for the Lions to mount a comeback, Gates emptied the end of the bench, subbing in all three of his team’s walk-ons — freshman guard Jackson Francois, junior center Mabor Majak and graduate guard Ben Sternberg.

Lindenwood got a putback layup to drop, stopping the clock with four seconds left. Sternberg asked Gates if he could pull up for one more shot. Gates gave him a nod. He had permission.

Sternberg received the inbound pass on the right side of the court, took three dribbles, hop-stepped over the halfcourt line and launched a prayer at the rim. The buzzer sounded as the ball fell through the hoop, making the final score 82-53. Sternberg untucked his jersey and strutted toward Mizzou Arena’s student section. When he turned back around, Francois and Mosley were there to chest bump him.

Gates said he immediately apologized to Lions head coach Kyle Gerdeman and made it clear Sternberg was not trying to showboat. But Gates truly felt it was a teaching moment for the Tigers.

“What if that's halftime, right?” Gates said. “I want guys to be able to play because our situations are all new. And it's one of those things where you have to give guys opportunities to do that through the entire clock, especially with how each game is evaluated.”

Sternberg’s teammates were excited to see him make a strong impression in his first game.

“That's my boy right there,” Honor said. “Ben, the word to describe him is 'energy.' He just does a lot for this program and everybody in it, brings a smile on everybody's face. He works hard, so I mean, it feels great to know that he knocked that down. I mean, we all believed it was going in. He had so much confidence in himself, you know what I'm saying? It's kind of contagious after a while.”

“I was happy for Ben,” senior forward Kobe Brown said. “I was glad to see that shot go in. He is, like Nick said, he's a huge energy guy. He's constantly talking, constantly bringing people together, he's the glue of our team.”

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