It was the same story, different night, for the Missouri Tigers inside of an energized Mizzou Arena. 

The Tigers kept the game close, but never had a chance to gain a lead. Missouri fell to the Arkansas Razorbacks 91-84. 

Arkansas won in the paint area all evening long, needing only four made 3-pointers to come away with the victory. The Razorbacks racked up 56 points in the paint to Missouri’s 30, and won the rebounding battle 35-26. 

“Credit to Arkansas, they scored 56 points in the paint,” Missouri head coach Dennis Gates said. “Defensively, you can’t win games that way.”

Arkansas’ interior success can be attributed to fifth-year forward Makhi Mitchell. Mitchell played his best game as a Razorback, scoring 19 points to go along with 14 rebounds. He matched his career high in scoring and his highest rebounding mark since transferring to Arkansas. 

“Mitchell had pretty much a double-double in the first half,” Gates said. “He kind of controlled the offensive glass.”

Aside from losing the battle in the paint, Missouri also cost themselves the game with their turnovers. The Tigers turned the ball over 18 times, resulting in 25 points for Arkansas. 

“The negative was assist to turnover ratio,” Gates said. “You can’t have 18 turnovers at home and expect to win a ballgame.”

The Tigers were led in scoring once again by junior guard Tamar Bates. Bates had his second-highest scoring output of the season with 29 points, 23 of which came in the second half. 

Graduate forward Noah Carter excited the already raucous crowd early on. Carter knocked down a three to tie the game at 5-5 before emphatically rejecting a layup attempt from graduate Khalif Battle. 

But Missouri lost momentum just as quickly as they gained it. The Razorbacks responded to the early stretch with a 20-7 run over the next nine minutes, capped off by a steal turned into a transition slam from Mitchell.

“We came out flat to begin the game,” Gates said. “I definitely apologize for our performance, especially in that first 10 minutes of the game.”

Frustrations began to boil over for Missouri just after the nine minute mark. Bates was tripped up attacking the rim and the Razorbacks capitalized on the 5-on-4 advantage. A 3-pointer from sophomore Keyon Menifield Jr., extended the lead to 13 points just 11 minutes into the game.  

Both teams traded baskets over the following five minutes. The Tigers cut the lead to 9 points at the under-4 timeout. 

The timeout included Arkansas head coach Eric Musselman and members of his staff getting into a screaming match with members of the Missouri student section. Following the break, the Razorbacks shot out of a cannon. The visitors dominated, going on a 12-2 run over the final 3:53 of the half and taking a commanding 47-28 lead into the locker room. 

The first ten minutes of the second half was seemingly Bates vs. Arkansas. The guard scored 18 of his team’s 26 points before heading to the bench at the 10-minute mark. The dominant stretch from Bates didn’t carry over to the defensive side of the ball, as the Tigers were only able to make a 2-point dent in the Razorbacks’ lead. 

The last bit of hope the Missouri fans had was taken away by fifth year Jalen Graham at the 7:39 mark. The Tigers’ defense secured consecutive stops, helping cut the Razorbacks’ lead to 13 points. With the entire stadium on their feet, sophomore Aidan Shaw went up for a dunk and was met at the rim by Graham, stuffing the shot back off of Shaw and out of bounds. 

The final dagger came from Menifield, as the sophomore knocked down a three on the wing to send Missouri fans to the exits. 

Despite two 3-pointers in the game’s final moments from freshman Anthony Robinson II, Missouri found themselves in the losing column once again. The loss drops them to 0-8 in SEC play and 8-13 overall. 

“We [have] to go out there and put 40 minutes of basketball together consistently,” Gates said. “No one’s going to have sympathy for us … we have to look in the mirror and be participants in our own rescue.”

Edited by Michael Stamps

Copy Edited by Briana Iordan | biordan@themaneater.com

Edited by Genevieve Smith | gsmith@themaneater.com