Sean East II, Noah Carter Lead Missouri Men's Basketball in Defensive Showcase Over SIUE

The Missouri Tigers win behind high defensive effort, holding the Cougars to below 30 percent shooting.

Missouri men's basketball handled business against the SIUE Cougars on Monday night.  

Coming off a staggering blowout defeat at the hands of Memphis, the Tigers men's basketball needed a game to rebound in a big way. Even though the first half started out slow, they rallied to defeat the Cougars 49-34 in a blowout win. 

The standouts included Sean East II and Noah Carter, who both carried much of the Missouri offense in the first half. 

East has had quite the successful season so far, scoring 21, 14 and now 20 points in his first three games on incredibly efficient 20-of-27 shooting. The senior is stepping up nicely in the leadership role, commanding the tempo and pace of the Missouri roster. 

After struggling to score against the Memphis defense, Carter had a much better outing tonight, scoring 15 points on 5-of-12 shooting. The senior looked a whole lot more confident, attacking defenders more often than his previous two games.

Freshmen Anthony Robinson II and Jordan Butler also contributed valuable minutes, mainly locking in on the defensive end. Both are young and inexperienced, but are growing with the playing time they receive.

On Robinson, "I can't say enough about him," Gates said. "I think his teammates...would say the same."

The Tiger defense had its best showing of the season so far, grabbing seven steals and blocking eight of the Cougars' shot attempts. SIUE shot just 12-of-40 from the field the entire 40 minutes, struggling to score against Missouri's defensive personnel. 

The first half started out sloppy for the Tigers. Tonje scored five points in quick succession, but the offense took a standstill until Carter drained three consecutive 3-pointers to put Missouri ahead 18-14 at the 12:04 mark. 

East also came alive in the last 10 minutes of the first half, scoring an additional consecutive nine points and finishing with 15 points. Honor hit a corner 3-pointer as the clock dwindled down, giving the Tigers a 38-31 lead heading into halftime.

Even though Missouri continued its emphasis on the 3-point shot – shooting 6-of-17 in the half – it still scored 12 points in the paint in the first half. 

The second half opened with Caleb Grill knocking down his first two 3-point attempts of the night, the opposite of his 1-for-8 shooting performance against the Memphis Tigers. 

At 11:18, East pickpocketed SIUE guard Damarco Minor and converted a layup on the fastbreak for Missouri's biggest defensive play of the game. 

From then on, The Tigers coasted en route to an 18-point victory. Missouri held SIUE to an abysmal 14-of-49 shooting performance in the second half, preventing a Cougar field goal for a 16 minute stretch. 

Missouri will leave home to visit its next opponent in the Minnesota Golden Gophers on Nov. 16 at 8:00 p.m. CT. 

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