Jahvon Quinerly tallied 18 points, eight rebounds and five assists to help rally Memphis past Missouri 70-55 Friday in Columbia, Mo.
Jaykwon Walton scored 13 points, Jordan Brown added 12, and David Jones scored 10 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for Memphis (2-0).
Sean East II scored 14 points and Noah Carter added 10 to lead Missouri (1-1).
Memphis trailed by as many as 14 points in the first half but flipped the game by temporarily switching to a zone defense that cooled down Missouri’s shooting.
Missouri missed 22 of its 28 shots from 3-point range and shot just 32.1 percent overall (18 of 56). Memphis dominated inside en route to a 47-33 rebounding edge and a 38-20 advantage with points in the paint.
With Memphis up 11-10 in the first half, Missouri went on a 16-2 run to take a 26-13 lead.
Carter, Aidan Shaw and East got the run started by scoring in the lane, then East hit a 3-point jumper. Then Missouri went back inside to get a basket from East, a three-point play from Carter and a short jumper from John Tonje.
Shortly after that, Brown scored twice in the lane for Memphis and the game turned. By closing out the half with a 7-2 burst — triggered by Walton’s 3-point jumper — Memphis was able to cut its deficit to 33-26.
Missouri missed its last seven shots from 3-point range and finished the half 4-for-17 from beyond the arc.
Memphis scored the first five points of the second half to start a 22-5 run that carried them to a 48-38 lead with 13:33 to play. Walton and Jones led the way by knocking down 3-point jumpers.
Memphis committed seven fouls in the first 7:30 of the second half and gave Missouri an opportunity to stabilize at the line. Anthony Robinson hit three throws to slow the Memphis charge and make it 48-41, but East missed two and Carter missed the front end of a one-and-one to keep the deficit at seven.
Memphis resumed their second half push, sparked by Quinerly’s 3-point jumper with 9:22 left, and kept Missouri at arm’s length the rest of the way.
–Field Level Media