No. 6 seed Missouri started its March Madness journey on March 20, taking on No. 11 seed Drake Bulldogs in the first round of the tournament. The Tigers’ postseason journey was cut short, as the Bulldogs defeated the Tigers 67-57 to advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

Drake guard Bennett Stirtz scored 14 points in the first half, leading the Bulldogs to a productive offensive half before halftime. He finished the game tallying 21 points, ending the game atop Drake’s scoresheet.

Missouri finished the first half trailing Drake 30-23. In this half, the Tigers went 7-for-21 in the field and 2-of-8 from beyond the arch. Missouri junior forward Mark Mitchell and graduate guard Tony Perkins led the team in scoring in the first half with five points each.

Missouri began the second half by drawing two fouls, leading to Perkins making two free throws. The Tigers drew 20 fouls total, going 23-of-26 from the free-throw line. Forty percent of Missouri’s points in the game came from free throws.

At the beginning of the second half, Missouri went on a 9-0 run, capped off by graduate guard Caleb Grill’s first and only 3-pointer of the game. Grill went 0-for-4 from deep in the first 20 minutes, finishing the game 1-for-7 from 3-point range. Grill also led the Tigers in scoring, putting up 14 points in the loss.

Grill took a pass from sophomore guard Anthony Robinson II in the paint, going up and jamming the ball down for the dunk. The basket cut the Bulldogs’ lead to five with less than three minutes remaining.

From there, it was all Drake. The Bulldogs went on a 9-4 run to end the game, with junior forward Tavion Banks getting a dunk off of a Missouri turnover to extend Drake’s lead to eight.

“No loss can demean how proud I am of this team,” Missouri guard Tamar Bates said in the post-game press conference. “At the end of the day, I’ll always remember this team … nobody believed in us but us.”

With six Tigers expected to leave after this season, Missouri looks ahead to the offseason and transfer portal to retool for next year.

Edited by Michael Stamps | mstamps@themaneater.com
Copy edited by Natalie Kientzy | nkientzy@themaneater.com
Edited by Emily Skidmore | eskidmore@themaneater.com