COLUMBIA, Mo. – The University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team battled the University of Missouri in an entertaining, high-scoring game at the Mizzou Arena on Friday night. The host Tigers used a late 10-2 run to turn a one-point game into a nine-point contest and ended up with a 92-85 win.
Penn fell to 0-2 on the young season, while Mizzou is 2-0 and has scored more than 90 points in both of its wins.
Quaker Notemeal
*Penn lost despite scoring 85 points; it marked the most points the Quakers scored in a loss since a 92-86 loss to Lafayette on November 29, 2015.
*Penn knocked down 16 three-point shots, tying a program record against a Division 1 opponent set two times previously (vs. Harvard on 2/21/2003; vs. Drexel on 1/28/2001);
the Quakers hit 17 against Widener on December 21, 2019.
*Penn went a perfect 11-of-11 at the foul line, the third time the Quakers have done that in the
Steve Donahue coaching era (5-of-5 vs. Dartmouth on 2/21/2020; 12-of-12 vs. Yale on 3/8/2019).
*Penn outrebounded Missouri by eight on Friday night, 37-29.
*Junior
Clark Slajchert led Penn with 21 points, the second 20-point game of his college career; the other also came on the court of an SEC opponent, when he dropped 25 at Arkansas last season.
*Slajchert also set a season/career high with six rebounds, putting him second on the team in that category behind only senior
Max Lorca-Lloyd (7).
*Junior
Jordan Dingle scored 18 points on Friday night; giving him 914 for his career; he also had three steals, a season/career high, and finished one assist shy of his career best with four.
*Senior
Jonah Charles was the third Penn player in double figures in the scoring column, with 12 points on four three-pointers.
*Five other players scored six points each including
George Smith,
Michael Moshkovitz and
Max Martz who got there with a pair of three-point baskets.
*Lorca-Lloyd had three assists, a season/career high, while senior
Lucas Monroe finished one assist shy of his season/career high with four.
How It Happened
Missouri could not have been hotter to start Friday night's contest. The Tigers scored 12 points on their first four possessions to take a 12-0 lead before the game was two minutes old, forcing Donahue to take a timeout. Charles hit a trey out of the break to get the Quakers on the board, but the shot was matched by Mizzou to make the hosts 5-of-5 beyond the arc on five possessions. Mizzou Arena was rocking.
Things settled down. Missouri eventually started missing—they had to, right?—and the Quakers quickly got back in it. At 20-7, another Charles trey set Penn off on a 14-0 run that took less than three minutes of game time.
Eddie Holland III figured prominently in the run, his trey making it a two-point game and then his and-1 putback (with the made foul shot) putting the Red and Blue in front, 21-20.
Mizzou quickly got the lead back on an alley-oop dunk, but Penn was playing with poise. Charles and Martz sandwiched triples around a Slajchert bucket, an eight-point run that gave the Quakers their largest lead of the night at 32-25. The lead was still six late in the half, at 41-35, but the host Tigers scored eight in a row to go back in front. A pair of Slajchert free throws finished the scoring and things were tied at the break, 43-43.
Missouri went up six early in the second half, 54-48, only for Penn to come back and tie things at 57-57. The Tigers responded with baskets on each of their next four possessions—two inside the arc, two outside the arc—and it was 67-60 as the half reached its midpoint.
Penn again kept its poise. Mizzou went scoreless for nearly four minutes and the Quakers took advantage with seven straight points, a Slajchert jumper in the lane tying things at 67 with just over six minutes to play. Missouri scored another three, only for Slajchert to hit another two.
At that point, though, Missouri re-established itself. The Tigers hit a shot from distance; got a steal which led to a pair of made foul shots; hit another three after a Slajchert basket; and got a putback. In all, they scored 13 points over five possessions and their lead was 12 (83-71) with less than three minutes left.
The closest Penn got after that was the final score, a Dingle triple closing things out in the final seconds.
Up Next
Penn plays its home opener on Sunday, hosting CAA favorite Towson at 4 p.m.
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