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COLUMBIA, Mo. -- North Carolina Central brought heavy hearts into Mizzou Arena Monday night.Patrick Cole had 17 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists and Pablo Rivas scored 16 points on 6-for-6 shooting to help the Eagles defeat Missouri 62-52.North Carolina Central University chancellor Debra Saunders-White died of cancer Saturday at age 59. She was the first female chancellor in school history, and as coach LeVelle Moton described, the biggest cheerleader for the basketball program.She was the best chancellor on the planet, the best person on the planet, Moton said. She was a fighter and I knew she would want us to fight for her and try to pay homage and honor this game for her.NC Central (4-2), a member of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, never trailed and led 24-20 at halftime. The Eagles seemed to stymie any momentum Missouri could muster over the course of its stagnant offensive performance.Missouri (3-3) made 17 of 68 field goal attempts, shooting just 17.1 percent in the first half. It was the Tigers lowest scoring output since losing to then-No. 13 Arizona on Dec. 13, 2015.Terrence Phillips led Missouri with 17 points despite playing only 21 minutes due to foul trouble. He was 6-for-10 from the field but fouled out with 2:34 seconds remaining.We held them to 25 percent shooting and I thought that was the difference in the game, Moton said. We had Phillips in foul trouble, I think hes the heart and soul of the team. As hes out there, you can just see they have a different swagger about themselves. Fortunately, he fouled out, and at the right time.The abysmal offense was on display from the opening tip, as Missouri missed six shots and grabbed five offensive rebounds on its first possession. The Tigers went on to miss their first nine shots, most of which were put-back attempts, and finished 11-for-20 from the free throw line.I dont know what it is, we just cant get off to a good start, Phillips said. We started 0-for-9 and I think seven of those were layups, point blank layups, and I couldnt believe we were missing them. Im telling guys, `just keep shooting, those shots are going to fall and they just kind of never did for us.Im not sure Ive ever seen something like I just saw, as far as missing so many shots at the basket, Missouri coach Kim Anderson said. I dont have an explanation.Phillips hit a 3-pointer to open the second half, but the Eagles answered with an 8-0 run and maintained momentum for the duration of the half. Missouri trailed 54-50 with 1:38 seconds remaining, but the Eagles closed on an 8-2 run.TIP-INSNC Central starts five graduate seniors, making it the most experienced starting lineup in the country.Missouri forward Reed Nikko did not play after spraining his left ankle against Northwestern State. ... Forward Will Ransom was scoreless on 0-for-2 shooting, but grabbed 10 rebounds and blocked a team-high four shots. ... Missouri announced it will redshirt freshman Jakoby Kemp.BIG PICTURENC Central: Missouri was one of two Power 5 schools on the Eagles schedule. Ohio State defeated the Eagles 69-63 on Nov. 14 in Columbus. NC Central opens conference play at home against Maryland Eastern Shore on Jan. 7.Missouri: The Tigers have struggled with slow starts this season. Missouri trailed No. 7 Xavier 9-3 early before an eventual one-point overtime loss and trailed Northwestern State 14-9 before pulling away to an 84-60 win. The Tigers also defeated Tulane 67-62 on Nov. 20 despite trailing by as many as 12 points in the first half.UP NEXTNC Central hosts Southern Wesleyan Thursday.Missouri hosts Western Kentucky on Saturday in the first meeting between the schools. NMD Sale . 10 VCU 85-67 on Thursday night at the Puerto Rico Tip-Off. The Seminoles (4-0) have scored at least 80 points in each of their games. NMD Online . -- Anaheim Ducks captain and leading scorer Ryan Getzlaf has been scratched from Sunday nights game against the Vancouver Canucks because of an upper-body injury. https://www.cheapnmdoutlet.com/ . 8 Kansas to a 64-63 win over Texas Tech on Tuesday night. The freshman from Vaughan, Ont. NMD Store .C. -- Rodney Hood connected from all over the court while freshman Jabari Parker was busy swatting shots and scoring in transition. NMD Wholesale . -- Peyton Manning will have all of his wide receivers available for the first time in a month when the Denver Broncos begin their playoff run Jan. This story appears in ESPN The Magazines College Football Preview issue. Subscribe today!The link to the new Steve Gleason documentary sat in my email for three days before I opened it. People told me Id love it. The reviews of the film, which won acclaim at Sundance and is now in wider release, are uniformly positive and talk about the spirit of life and hope laced through his journey. That didnt matter much. I didnt want to watch someone die of ALS in front of my eyes. I know Steve and his wife, Michel, a little, spending time with them for a story, and even that brief interaction showed me enough of their struggles to know that there wouldnt be some Hollywood ending.The movie follows five years of Steves life as he goes from a vibrant football folk hero for the New Orleans Saints to a man trapped in a wheelchair, unable to speak or move. After seeing his struggle up close - not only the valiant bits that raise awareness, but the awkward fights with his stressed-out wife and his son gently pushing his limp head back into place - I thought I knew what the movie would be about and how it would make me feel.Then I watched Gleason. I was wrong.The film opens with Steve starting to record video journals for his still unborn son, Rivers, that would teach him about love and about taking chances, about being his own person and building a campfire: things a boy needs to learn from his father if he wants to grow into a good man. Soon the cameras are around Steve all the time, as he gets his diagnosis of ALS and then starts to lose things. We see Michel see him try to swim and struggle, crying at the sight of the strong man she married actually beginning his slide toward nothing. His dad takes him to a faith healer and Steve gets down in his football stance, like hes covering a kickoff, with his hand up in the air. He takes four steps and hits the ground hard and sliding, like a big bull thats been shot. In the crowd, Michel fumes at Steves dad for making him do this to himself. Later we see Steve speaking some of his last words before ALS traps him in a silent body, in one of the purest moments of desperation and despair ever recorded on fillm.ddddddddddddThe arc is sophisticated and layered, its central thesis revolving around the things passed down from father to son, moving through generations. We see Steve try to make peace with his own father while attempting to give as much of himself as he can to Rivers. We see Steve and Michel argue. We see Steve struggle with the same things as many healthy people, just in an extreme way: He wants to work on his foundation because it makes him feel good to be helping, gives him a purpose, while Michel thinks hes not spending enough time with her and with his video journals for Rivers. That conflict drives the second half of the movie.If reality television is the worst of the American impulse to film, and a window into the very worst of what the human animal is capable of being, then this movie and its hours of personal footage is a window into the best. It is one of the finest documentaries that Ive ever seen, period. Go see it for the first time and just cry and feel empty and like theres no point in even dreaming because life crushes all of us eventually, and then go see it again so that the hope and the victory emerge from all those ashes. Its the visual version of the Dylan Thomas poem.Everyone faces the challenges confronting Steve, only most of us deal with them slowly over seven or eight decades. All of the business of life hit him at once, and in his sped-up horror, there are powerful messages. Im writing this in my kitchen, and my wife is outside drinking coffee on our porch, and thats where I should be, not doing a job but living my life and making sure I understand what matters and what doesnt while I still can. Those are the things youll think in the hours after Gleason ends. Its a movie that seems, in its first scenes, to be about watching up close as a man dies, but it turns out to be the opposite. We watch as Steve Gleason rages against the dying of the light, and when its over, we realize that continuing to fight in the face of certain defeat is at the heart of what it means to live. ' ' '