Missouri won its fourth straight game, defeating Arkansas and improving to 15-3 (4-1 SEC). The Tigers led for 38:40 of this contest en route to an 83-65 win. Five players for Missouri had double-digit points. 

The Tigers turned the intensity up after the Razorbacks took an early 2-0 lead by scoring 18 unanswered points. Missouri’s hot three-point shooting helped create a large gap. They drained nine first-half threes on 52.9% shooting. 

“We knew that they had some strong starts in their past few games, so we knew they were gonna try to come out and punch us and that’s what we tried to do right back to them,” forward Mark Mitchell said. 

Tamar Bates and Caleb Grill each had a trio of three-pointers and Trent Pierce went a perfect 2-for-2 in the opening half. Bates and Grill also surpassed career milestones by scoring 1,000 collegiate points, respectively. 

“It’s definitely an excellent personal achievement, but that wasn’t on my mind coming into the game,” Bates said.

The Tigers held a 17-point lead going into halftime up 52-35. They held Arkansas’ talented duo of Adou Thiero and freshman Boogie Fland to a combined eight points. 

Grill was all over the floor in the first half with 11 points, three assists and three steals. 

Missouri recorded 15 assists in the first half as a team, surpassing its season average of 13.8 assists per game.

It was a sloppy start to the second half with six combined turnovers in the first 2:24. Despite having three early turnovers in the second, Missouri only totaled nine turnovers in the game. 

The lead was cut down to 10 with 6:22 left in the game, but the Tigers sparked a 13-5 run to close the game and win comfortably.

The Tigers knocked down six three-pointers in the second half, compared to 17 first-half attempts. There were only two made three-pointers for Missouri in the second. 

Anthony Robinson ll had a quiet first half with zero points, but had seven points in the second half, with four coming at the free throw line. He also contributed in other ways with seven rebounds and four assists. 

Mitchell tied Grill for the game-high scorer with 17 points. Mitchell also pulled down five rebounds, dished out four assists and poked away two steals. 

Missouri also played Texas, Ole Miss and Mississippi State following this game, going 2-1 in that stretch.

Edited by Michael Stamps | mstamps@themaneater.com

Copyedited by Emma Short | eshort@themaneater.com

Edited by Annie Goodykoontz | agoodykoontz@themaneater.com