Robinson’s career night lifts Tigers in comeback

Anthony Robinson got a heads up before Tuesday’s game that he was going to have a good night.

“My mom called and she said, ‘I feel a good game coming,’” Robinson said.

Her feeling was right.

Robinson recorded a career-high 29 points as he led the Missouri Tigers to a huge comeback against the California Golden Bears in the SEC/ACC Challenge at Mizzou Arena.

“You can look in the stat sheet and look at certain things that he did, but what’s telling is his leadership, his tenacity,” Missouri coach Dennis Gates said of his sophomore point guard who seems to be turning into a star in Year 2.

The Tigers were down 34-33 late in the first half, but a 17-0 Cal run that seemed reminiscent of many games from the 2023-24 season sent the Golden Bears into halftime with a 51-38 lead.

But unlike last year’s team, the Tigers didn’t fold.

Missouri came out of the break on fire, opening the second half with a putback dunk from Josh Gray before Robinson followed Gray through the lane for a layup to cut the lead to 51-39.

“Shoutout Peyton (Marshall) and Josh, they set great screens and allow me to see the floor better,” Robinson said. “My guy was in drop (coverage), so I’m just reading the game.”

Two Mark Mitchell free throws, a Tamar Bates jumper and two Robinson free throws had the Tigers out to a 10-1 run in the first three minutes out of the break, then Bates added two more jumpers to help build his 15 total points after scoring only two in the first half.

A Robinson layup cut the lead to 57-51 with 14:56 left, then a Bates jumper made it 57-53 before Robinson fed an alley-oop to Aidan Shaw on a pass that never traveled more than a few inches above the rim to get the Tigers within 2.

Mizzou came all the way back to tie when Marques Warrick hit two free throws with 11:30 on the clock to make it 64-64, erasing what had been an 18-point lead in less than 9 minutes.

“I would love to take all the credit and sometimes coaches sit here and take all the credit. I credit our players,” Gates said. “They challenged themselves, they knew what we had to do. The right voices were talking in leadership and it showed in those first couple minutes coming out of the game.”

The Tigers kept the run going with another Warrick free throw, he would end with 12 points in just 16 minutes, then a Peyton Marshall steal turned into one of Robinson’s game-high six assists on a Marshall layup.

Marshall had to fill in with Gray earning four fouls early, and made the most of his 11 minutes, producing a career high of six points, to go with three rebounds and an assist.

“I feel like any sign of physicality or aggression (in high school), they will penalize my size and just like, ‘Oh, you too big to be hitting on those kids like that,’” Marshall said. “Whereas now, it’s like, everyone’s the same size, so it’s normal. Like, gotta tell them get in the weight room, you can’t penalize somebody for being strong.”

“I can’t say enough, he impacted the game in more ways than one,” Gates said. “He’ll laugh and giggle about it. I thought he prepared himself mentally and took the challenge that I bestowed upon him at halftime and showed up.”

Marshall said that challenge was simply, “Be ready. Pick up the intensity.”

The Tigers never trailed again, though Cal did tie the game at 75 and 79. A Mitchell fastbreak dunk off a Robinson steal put the Tigers in front for good at 81-79 with 4:56 left to play.

Mitchell turned another turnover into a dunk two plays later to extend the lead to six.

The Tigers extended as far as 6 points a few times in the final minutes, but missed free-throw attempts hampered the effort as Mizzou made 25-of-38 (65.8 percent) from the charity stripe.

Mizzou shot 35-of-53 (66 percent) from the field, including an astounding 22-of-26 (84.6 percent) in the second half, but made only 3-of-9 (33.3 percent) attempts from 3 without Caleb Grill.

The attempt total from deep was by far the fewest Missouri has shot this year, the previous low being 18 against Eastern Washington, and is only the second time a Gates-led Tiger team shot fewer than 10, narrowly beating out his tenure’s low of eight against South Carolina last year.

“Changing the game plan was obviously getting to the basket, shortening the game, getting to the free-throw line,” Gates said. “And our bigs, between Josh and Peyton, I thought those guys set some great ball screens for Ant, and they had some great assists.”

Cal outrebounded Missouri 34-24, but the Tigers won the points in the paint 50-42.

Missouri (7-1) faces its toughest test of the young season when it hosts kansas for the Border War at noon Sunday.

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