Puryear with 20 points, Missouri beats Wofford 83-74

What a difference a year makes.

Kevin Puryear scored 20 points and grabbed five rebounds to lead Missouri to an 83-74 victory over Wofford in the season opener for both teams on Friday night. Wofford is returning 3 of their 5 leading scorers from last season.

Missouri hosts University of Maryland Eastern Shore on Sunday.

Namon Wright, who was withheld from Missouri’s 92-53 exhibition victory against Missouri Western last Friday for violation of team policy, added 18 points and seven rebounds. “Last year, I’m guessing we lost our first game”. “Believe me, I’ve been reminded several times”.

That scar is officially healed over with a win over a quality opponent. Missouri shot 56 percent from the field, which also would have been a season-best last season. “Doggone it, I was impressed with their team”. Gordon also had a team-best six rebounds.

Their most famous alumni that you may have heard of is Wendi Nix and she’s on ESPN in a few capacity, so I assume John Anderson will be telling her what for for all us Tigers in the halls of Bristol today. “Hey, that’s a good team”.

“They’re a very well-coached team; they handle the ball extremely well and they have a lot of experience so it’s a tough opener for us”. Though according to Kenpom.com, a basketball site created by Ken Pomeroy based on tracking every statistic from pace of play to points-per-possession, Wofford (161) still ranks six spots better than Missouri (167). The under is 6-0 in Wofford’s last 6 games against the SEC.

Missouri’s lead reached as many as 13 at one point, and the Tigers went into the half up 39-29. “That’s a pretty good kickstart to a career for that young man”.

“To be honest, he’s been playing like that (in practice)”, Anderson said. “The rest of (the freshmen) are never pouting or anything; they just come ready to play”. The Missouri lead dipped into single-point territory 10 times but Wofford couldn’t get any closer than five. After a pair of Wright free throws, Fletcher Magee trimmed MU’s lead to 76-70 with 58.6 seconds left, but MU’s Wes Clark knocked down four free throws for all of his points to pull the Tigers away for good.

The last game Puryear played at Mizzou Arena that counted ended in a state championship for Blue Springs South. He shot 8-of-14 on Friday, and added five rebounds as well.

Forward Ryan Rosburg is the only senior on a roster with five new scholarship players after junior guard Martavian Payne opted to step away from basketball and focus on academics, the school announced Friday.

Payne, a 6-2 junior guard from St. Louis, played at Marquette High, Imagine Prep and Madison Prep before spending the last two seasons at John A. Logan College in Carterville, Ill.