SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Missouri used a second-half scoring spurt from Kobe Brown to win its first NCAA Tournament game in 13 years, beating Utah State 76-65 on Thursday.Brown hit three 3-pointers in a span of just over three minutes to fuel a 13-2 run that turned a two-point deficit into a 62-53 lead.“He’s our MVP. I can tell you that,” coach Dennis Gates said. “Ultimately when he started making some shots in that second half, he immediately made eye contact. He said he’s here. I said, ‘Yes, you are. We can see.’” The seventh-seeded Tigers (25-9) held on from there, stopping a six-game tournament skid with their first win since beating Clemson in the first round in 2010.Missouri advanced to play 15th-seeded Princeton in the second round of the South Region. The Tigers upset No. 2 seed Arizona 59-55. The 10th-seeded Aggies (26-9) have dropped their last 10 tournament games since beating Ohio State in the first round in 2001. The loss was also the 11th straight for a Mountain West team in the NCAAs.“It’s really, really, really, really, really hard to win in college basketball,” coach Ryan Odom said. “These guys did it. They won enough to get an at-large bid here. Even though we didn’t get what we wanted in terms of a …
Missouri beats Utah St. for 1st March Madness win since 2010
