Tigers win in overtime

Anthony Robb, Corner Post staff

Nov. 18, 2002 - The Missouri Tigers have played several close games this season and finally pulled one out in a 33-27 win over Texas A&M Saturday. The win improved the Tigers' record to 5-6 on the season and made them one win away from becoming bowl eligible.

Playing in their second straight overtime contest, Missouri jumped out to an early lead of 17-3 behind two touchdowns by running back Zack Abron, but the Aggies of A&M tied it up in the third quarter. The Tigers then scored on a touchdown pass to senior wide receiver Justin Gage, but the Aggies wouldn't go away and scored on their own drive to tie the game at 24 and send it into overtime.

In the first overtime, MU kicker Michael Matheny kicked a field goal to put the Tigers up by three. Again, the Aggies evened the score with their own field goal.

Tiger cornerback Michael Harden intercepted a pass in double overtime to stop the Aggies from scoring. Quarterback Brad Smith scored on a one-yard touchdown run on the following drive to give the Tigers their second win in conference play.

In previous games, the Tigers had played several teams close but had to fight back in the second half from deficits. Against A&M, the Tigers came out early and set the tone of the game.

"The key to winning this game was jumping out on them real early in the game," Abron said. "In a lot of the previous games, we lost [when the game was] real close. The other teams jumped out on us first, and we kind of reversed it … we jumped on them fast, and they had to play catch up."

"We didn't wait and have to come back from behind and make the game close," defensive end Antwaun Bynum said. "We wanted to come out and jump out and show guys what we could do by coming out, starting fast, and finishing strong, which is what we did."

Smith was 13 of 25 passing attempts for 171 yards with two touchdowns and rushed for 94 yards with one touchdown. The 94 rushing yards left him one yard short of 1,000 yards for the season, which would make him only the second quarterback in Division 1-A history to pass for 2,000 yards and rush for 1,000 yards.

Abron rushed for 127 yards with a rushing touchdown and a receiving touchdown, and Gage caught seven passes for 123 yards with a touchdown.

The next game of the season is 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Faurot Field against the nationally ranked Kansas State Wildcats. The game can be heard locally on KFRU/1400 AM and KBXR/102.3 FM. KMIZ/Channel 17 will also carry the game.


Story originally posted 11/19/02


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