Tigers move on in tourney with third win over Ole Miss

TAMPA, FL -- Ronnie DeGray III kept Missouri afloat in the first half. Kobe Brown ensured that the Tigers would survive another day, scoring 16 points with seven rebounds and four assists as Missouri defeated Ole Miss, 72-60 in the first round of the 2022 SEC Tournament.

With the score tied at 32 at halftime, the Tigers came out hot, storming to a 14-point lead thanks to an 18-6 run with six of those points coming from the star Brown. Ole Miss never got within ten points the rest of the game.

"We've been in those situations before, and we let the game slide away from us," Brown said. "We emphasized that we didn't want to go home. So we had to make everything count."

DeGray provided the offensive spark for the Tigers early on. During a three-minute and 30-second stretch in the first half, the sophomore scored 11 points for Missouri, including three-straight three-pointers as the two teams continued to exchange leads. He finished with 14 points, all coming in the first 16 minutes.

"I felt good," DeGray said. "Especially Kobe finding me. The rim was the ocean, just everything going in."

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The Tigers controlled the paint, scoring 40 points in the paint. Missouri took advantage of the charity stripe in the second half, making 13-of-18 free throws after attempting just three before the half. On the glass, Mizzou out-rebounded Ole Miss 37-25.

"It's always an emphasis to be a good rebounding team, but it doesn't always turn out like that," head coach Cuonzo Martin said.

Trevon Brazile led the Tigers with eight rebounds and three blocks while scoring nine points. Javon Pickett and Boogie Coleman added nine apiece.

Missouri returns to the floor on Friday to take on No. 5 seed LSU. The game is scheduled to begin 25 minutes after the end of Florida-Texas A&M, which starts at 11 a.m. CT. LSU beat Missouri 75-55 in Baton Rouge on February 26 in the teams' only meeting this season.