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Signature moment of a basketball renaissance

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There’s a reason we put ourselves through this. The agonizing, gut-wrenching, punch-you-in-the-throat pain that these games cause us. Being a sports fan is not for the faint of heart. Being a Mizzou sports fan is probably a little less for the faint of heart than most.

There were plenty of cardiac moments on Saturday in Mizzou’s 89-85 win over Mississippi State. Between 2:58 and 3:05 in the afternoon, it was hard to remember exactly why you wanted to watch. You probably wanted to stop. Some of you probably did. In those seven minutes, Missouri managed to gag away a 12-point lead to Mississippi State in 72 seconds of game time.

There was a turnover, a double technical, a missed shot, a foul on a made layup, three more turnovers, another foul and a three-pointer by the Bulldogs. That last one eventually tied a game Missouri couldn’t possibly lose at 79.

“Made it a lot tougher down the stretch than we would have liked,” Cuonzo Martin said.

Mississippi State would score the first five points of overtime, taking an 84-79 lead with 17 unanswered points over the span of three minutes and 47 seconds. But Missouri wasn’t done.

“We just got to go back out there and do what we did to get the lead,” Jordan Geist said. “We kind of fell back on our heels and let them come back.”

The win—and make no mistake, this was one that everybody except Mississippi State had filed under the column with a W for Mizzou—was gone. It was over. It was lost. Nobody could doubt that. But nobody told Kevin Puryear.

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Kevin Puryear brought the joy back to Mizzou Arena with a game-winning three-pointer
Kevin Puryear brought the joy back to Mizzou Arena with a game-winning three-pointer (Jordan Kodner)

After three free throws by his teammates got Mizzou within two, Puryear tipped in a missed three-pointer by Kassius Robertson to tie the game. It was Missouri’s first made field goal in seven minutes and 58 seconds.

“The thing I said to Kevin, you have to rebound, especially offensive rebounds,” Martin said. “I mean, he’s 6-7, 240 pounds. That’s a big guy. He has to impose his will, especially when they got guys that are 6-6, 220. Man, we have to get those.”

But the best was yet to come. After a free throw by Abdul Ado put the Bulldogs up 85-84, Missouri muddled its way through about 24 seconds worth of shot clock. Puryear kicked the ball back out to Robertson on the left wing and floated to the corner. Robertson drove and Puryear’s defender left him, collapsing to shut off Robertson’s drive. Robertson kicked it to Puryear, now all alone, who made his first three-pointer in exactly a calendar month. Two Robertson free throws iced a game that Missouri had won, then lost, then won again.

“Kash did a really good job of being aggressive and attacking the lane,” Puryear said. “Kash being one of our better scorers—the scorer—we want the ball in his hands to make a play. Very unselfish of him to kick it to me in the corner.

“Ended up being pretty big for us.”

How big was it?

“We put ourselves in position to win at a very difficult place to win at against a really good Missouri team,” Bulldogs head coach Ben Howland said. “They’re already in. This was an NCAA Tournament team we were playing on the road.”

We’ve seen Puryear do this before. In the final win of Kim Anderson’s career, the then-sophomore hit a straight on three to beat Auburn in the SEC Tournament opener, leading his coach to let everyone know just where they could stick it on his way out the door.

Cuonzo Martin looks on in disbelief in the second half of Missouri's win
Cuonzo Martin looks on in disbelief in the second half of Missouri's win (Jordan Kodner)

But that one happened in front of a few hundred fans in a meaningless 11-14 game on a Wednesday night in Nashville. This one came in front of a rabid home crowd on hand not only to help will Missouri to its fourth straight win, but also to raise $60,000 for pediatric cancer research in honor of Rhyan Loos, the seven-year old daughter of former Tiger assistant Brad Loos.

Before the game, every Tiger wore a t-shirt with the name of a local child battling cancer. The name on the back of Puryear’s shirt: Rhyan Loos.

“I think it was put in my locker on purpose,” Puryear said. “That little girl is a fighter. She’s been through so much and to see her still smiling and still see her happy, it makes me really happy.

“Coach Loos was the one who really recruited me here and called me frequently. I really got to build a really close relationship with him and when all this happened my freshman year, it was really heartbreaking for him. Anytime I can give him support, it’s just really big.”

Puryear wouldn’t say this game-winner felt better than the one that beat Auburn last March.

“I thought they were both pretty cool,” he said. “I just love winning.”

But come on. That one meant nothing as soon as Missouri lost to end a horrific 8-and-24 season the next night. This one? It’s hard to quantify how much it meant. Missouri is now 17-and-8. It is 7-and-5 in the Southeastern Conference, no more than three wins away from locking up a return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in five seasons. That it came at the end of a game that Missouri had tried so hard to give away, just about 24 hours after a potential season-changing player told the world he thought he was going to be able to come back and play for the Tigers and kept intact Missouri’s perfect record on days it Rallies For Rhyan? That’s storybook stuff, man.

And that’s why we watch. It’s why we’ll keep watching. Missouri’s comeback season got its signature moment on Saturday afternoon.

At least so far.

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