Missouri Tigers defeat #25 Arkansas at Home, 79-76

The Missouri Tigers defeated the Arkansas Razorbacks 79-76, avenging a January 4th loss to the Razorbacks in Fayetteville. The two teams played in a nail bitter that was won by some clutch free throw shooting by the Tigers. Both teams had their struggles but each had a chance to win at the end.

Missouri started the game off slow and did not score their first basket until Kobe Brown hit a jumper at the 15:04 mark. The Razorbacks got off to a 9-2 lead and appeared to be in control early. Missouri was able to tighten the game in the first half and overcame some bad shooting. The Tigers only hit 36.7% of their shots from the field in the first half.

Although Arkansas shot the ball better than Missouri, they did turn the ball over a lot. The Razorbacks had 14 turnovers at halftime and finished the game with 21. Those turnovers could be attributed to bad ball handling as the Tigers finished the game with 13 steals. Those turnovers had significant impact on the game as the Razorbacks also out rebounded Missouri 39 to 18.

The other key metric that pushed the Missouri Tigers to the win was their free throws. Although they were not making shots from the field, the team did shoot 75% from the free throw line and got there 14 more times than the Razorbacks. Those free throws were how the Tigers closed out the game.

With the game tied 71-71, Missouri got a key call when an offensive foul was called against the Razorbacks’ Davonte Davis which led to him fouling out the game. Davis was Arkansas leading scorer for the evening with 18 points and also provided 9 rebounds. After that, the Tigers’ Kobe Brown made two free throws that gave Missouri the final lead change that they maintained until the end of the game.

The Razorbacks fought hard at the end with two key baskets by guard Anthony Black, including a big three pointer that brought Arkansas within one point with 5 seconds left in the game. Sean East was able to sink the final 2 free throws for Missouri to give us the final score of 79-76.

Missouri Tigers defeat Arkansas Razorbacks, 79-76

Both teams needed this win as they were both on losing streaks. Missouri was on a two game losing skid and with the win, now pull to even 3-3 in SEC play. Arkansas has now lost four straight and fall to 1-5 in conference play, and likely will no longer be in the top 25 after this week.

Up next for Arkansas will be a home game against 9-9 (1-5) Ole Miss on January 21st at 12:00pm and can be seen on ESPN2.

The Tigers will host #4 Alabama 16-2 (6-0) on January 21st, at 6:00pm and can be seen on the SEC Network.