Wes Clark slowly made his way to the Missouri locker room. His jersey covered his face while he sobbed into the white polyester fabric.
Clark was led off the court by former Mizzou standout Kim English, who walked with a right arm around the sophomore guard while sporting his “white out” attire.
Clark had just missed two free throws with 3.3 seconds left in the game and his team down one point. The Tigers lost to Arkansas 61-60 Saturday afternoon at the Mizzou Arena, making it their fifth consecutive loss.
“No one feels worse than Wes Clark for missing two free throws,” Missouri coach Kim Anderson said Monday. “There’s some real disappointment in the locker room. We fought this for 40 minutes and had the opportunity, but couldn’t get it done.”
When Clark arrived in the locker room, he was comforted by a group of 12 sweaty basketball players.
“It wasn’t his fault,” freshman guard Montaque Gill-Caesar said. “After the game, that’s what we told him. We win together, we lose together. It was nobody’s fault.”
Arkansas coach Mike Anderson took a timeout before Clark went to the line. While he said it was mostly to plan for what his team would do following the attempts, Mike Anderson admitted the timeout was also meant to “ice” Clark. He said his team was fortunate to win.
“I’m sure if Wes shot those free throws nine other times he’d make them, but this afternoon, it shined on the Razorbacks,” Mike Anderson said.
Moments later, Clark came up short on both free throw attempts. Both shots clanged off the front of the rim and the second one was grabbed out of the air by Arkansas senior guard Rashad Madden. Game over.
The arena’s crowd of 11,022, the highest of the season, groaned in disgust and disappointment following the misses. Clark, a 71.4 percent free throw shooter on the year, had failed to win the game, or even tie it.
But Clark’s misses did not erase a solid stat line from the game. Clark scored eight points to go along with five rebounds and six assists. He did not commit a single personal foul in the game Saturday.
Clark proved his worth on the defensive end too, as he held Arkansas junior guard Michael Qualls to eight points on 3-for-15 shooting. Qualls is the team’s second-leading scorer, averaging 16.4 points per game.
“Wes is an elite defender,” Gill-Caesar said. “He’s quick. He’s smart. Putting him on Qualls was a smart move, because it made his night very difficult.”
Gratification for Clark continued in the hours following the game. English took to Twitter to express of how proud he was of Clark.
“Wes Clark today established himself as the leader of this basketball team for the remainder of this season and the next 2 years,” English tweeted.
The tweets did not stop there. Clark received an outpouring of support over social media.
Freshman guard Tramaine Isabell tweeted this about his fellow guard:
“If I’m in a fight, I want Wes on my side.. My boy is fine.. We wouldn’t have been in that position without him. #ToughAsTheyCome.”
And Isabell was right. Out of Clark’s eight points, six of them came in the game’s final six minutes when the Tigers were trying to stage a comeback against a six-point deficit. Multiple teammates, including sophomore forward Johnathan Williams III and freshman forward Jakeenan Gant, retweeted Isabell’s message.
Another tweet came from Clark’s roommate, senior guard Keith Shamburger.
“Tough one thanks for the support my brotha will bounce back better,” Shamburger tweeted.
Shamburger said tears nearly come to his eyes when thinking about Clark’s reaction to Saturday’s missed free throws.
“The basketball gods wanted a different outcome,” he said.