No. 15 Missouri suffered a loss in dramatic fashion to No. 10 Texas A&M 67-64. Wade Taylor IV hit the game winning three-pointer with two seconds left in the game to seal the victory.

The score swapped often in the final nine minutes of game time with four lead changes. Missouri took a 64-63 lead on a transition alley-oop from Marques Warrick to Tamar Bates. The Aggies tied things up at 64 after Andersson Garcia went one-for-two from free throw.

With 10 seconds left and the game still tied, Texas A&M held the ball. The Aggies ran a designed play out of a timeout that got Taylor an open three. The shot was pure, and Missouri’s Caleb Grill couldn’t make a halfcourt shot with two seconds remaining in the game. 

“Preseason conference player of the year made a tough shot,” head coach Dennis Gates said in the postgame press conference. “Players make plays and it was a tough contest.”

A&M moved to 5-0 against Missouri in the three years under coach Gates. This snapped the Tigers’ home winning streak of 15 games. 

Missouri started slowly, missing their first six shot attempts against the Aggie defense ranked No. 5 in the SEC. A&M jumped out to a 12-0 lead before Bates got the Tigers on the board with a three-pointer.

The spark was lit after Jacob Crews hit a three point shot  at the 11:03 mark after an illegal screen on Texas A&M. Crews knocked down two more from three while Mark Mitchell provided two buckets on the inside, tying the score 20-20. 

A&M finished the first half on a 18-9 run, holding a 38-29 lead at the break. Missouri couldn’t convert a single field goal attempt in the final 8:13 of the half.

Missouri trailed in the second half until Bates went two-for-two at the free throw line and a dunk on the ensuing possession. The score was tied 49-49 with 9:41 remaining. Freshman Marcus Allen gave Missouri its first lead of the game with a contested layup.

“Marcus Allen has a high basketball IQ on the defensive end,” Gates said. “He did everything I asked, especially when it came to giving his team a spark.”

The Tigers had three double-digit scorers, Bates led the team with 16, followed by Crews with 14 and Mitchell with 12. Allen pulled down a career-high six rebounds in his 13 minutes.

For the Aggies, Pharrel Payne was the game-high scorer with 20 points. Taylor had 15 plus the dagger three. Henry Coleman III pulled down a career-high 16 rebounds with 11 coming in the first half.

Bates was Missouri’s top scorer but struggled shooting at many levels. He shot five-for-seventeen from the field and two-for-seven from three-point range. Bates finished the game -10 with all Missouri starters producing a negative on-court rating. 

The Tigers faced Oklahoma at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 12 at the Mizzou Arena and won 82-58.

Edited by Dylan Heinrich | dheinrich@themaneater.com

Copyedited by Hannah Taylor | htaylor@themaneater.com 

Edited by Annie Goodykoontz | agoodykoontz@themaneater.com