It started with Georgia. Then Kentucky. South Carolina, in overtime. Alabama. Florida. Texas A&M. South Carolina, again. Arkansas. Vanderbilt. Texas A&M, again. Mississippi State. Mississippi. Tennessee. And now Arkansas again for good measure.
Missouri men’s basketball team has now lost a program-record 14 consecutive games, a stretch of futile play that entered the realm of the unprecedented with an 88-73 road loss to the Razorbacks in a Saturday matinee.
The Tigers have gone 56 days without a victory and haven’t won a game in 2024. With just four games left in the regular season, their chances of finishing Southeastern Conference play in winless fashion continue to grow.
The ongoing skid bypasses two 13-game losing streaks from the 2014-15 and 2016-17 seasons.
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Avoiding going into the history books for the wrong reasons didn’t make for any bulletin board material in the run-up to Saturday’s game, though.
“I focus on one day at a time, one game at a time,†second-year MU coach Dennis Gates said. “I’ve never done that in a winning streak, and I definitely don’t count anything outside of that. I thought our guys mentally prepared in the right way. Our spirits are high. Our coaching staff is doing a great job. At the end of the day, what you see is a team playing hard and giving their very best no matter what our circumstances are.â€
Point guard Sean East II, who finished with a season-high 33 points, agreed with his coach.
“We never counted a streak last year on the winning streak,†he said. “We never counted a streak. We take it day by day, hour by hour, second by second.â€
The latest loss saw Arkansas guard Khalif Battle spend a couple of his hours torching the Tigers for a whopping 42 points. Battle’s heater saw him shoot 11 for 15 from the field, six for 10 from 3-point range and go perfect on his 14 free throws.
Battle recorded the first field goal of the game more than four minutes into the affair with a 3-pointer, playing well across the first frame before exploding for 26 points in the second half alone.
“He’s a good player and that was their chance of winning that game, of a hot hand,†Gates said. “I thought our chance of winning the game was coming from a hot hand as well. Sean East did a great job, but again, when you look at our scoring grid, when you look at Nick Honor, Sean East and Noah Carter and Tamar Bates, we need those guys to be able to produce and carry the load when it comes to our scoring production.â€
East’s scoring didn’t involve a single 3-point attempt as he routinely drove and pivoted his way to points in the lane. He earned 16 free throws — more than half of Missouri’s team total — and made 15 of them.
“We’re just trying to go out and execute the game plan, hard physical drives, and they’re fouling, so I’m getting to the line,†East said.
His backcourt partner, Honor, attempted the 10 3-pointers that Gates wants him to and converted at a valuable 40% clip. But he didn’t score from anywhere else on the floor.
Bates, who has emerged as MU’s alternate scorer when East isn’t producing, fouled out in garbage time after scoring 11 points on two-of-six shooting, benefitting from some free throw line production as well. Taking away some of his ability to create space seemed to be a priority for the Razorbacks’ defense.
“I’ve seen defenses focus on him,†Gates said. “He’s been one of the hottest players in our conference. He still got double digits, but at that point, you need that fourth guy to step up, and Noah Carter wasn’t able to do that.â€
Carter matched East with a team-high 14 shots, but only three of his went in as he wound up with eight points.
After another extraordinarily slow start to a game, Mizzou stuck with Arkansas through halftime, trailing 36-34 at the break after East beat the buzzer with a layup.
The Tigers assembled a 10-0 run early in the second half, taking a 44-41 lead with a second-chance 3 from Honor.
Then came the breakdown that has kept Missouri from putting anything in the win column. With Arkansas ahead 53-52, Battle pulled up from beyond NBA range to beat MU’s zone defense. East lost the ball off his foot on the other end of the floor, which led to another Battle 3 and a 59-52 advantage for the Hogs.
The game swung into out-of-hand territory with just under seven minutes to play. Battle took an off-balance heat-check 3 from well beyond the top of the key, drawing a foul and sinking the jumper for a four-point play that put Arkansas ahead by 11.
“Definitely the first half of play, we did a great job,†Gates said. “I think the game got away from us on the hot hand by Battle — made some tough shots.â€
Arkansas 88, Missouri 73
MISSOURI
FG FT Reb
Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts
Butler 10 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 3 0
Carter 35 3-14 2-2 1-7 1 2 8
Bates 35 2-6 6-6 0-6 2 5 11
East 38 9-14 15-16 1-3 2 3 33
Honor 34 4-12 2-2 2-2 1 4 14
Vanover 16 1-1 0-0 1-5 0 3 2
Shaw 14 1-1 1-2 0-1 0 4 3
Majak 10 0-2 2-2 0-0 0 1 2
Robinson 9 0-1 0-0 0-1 0 3 0
Totals 200 20-51 28-30 5-25 6 28 73
Percentages: FG .392, FT .933.
3-Point Goals: 5-19, .263 (Honor 4-10, Bates 1-4, Robinson 0-1, Carter 0-4).
Team Rebounds: 2. Team Turnovers: None.
Blocked Shots: 4 (Carter 2, Shaw 2).
Turnovers: 8 (East 4, Bates, Butler, Carter, Vanover).
Steals: 3 (Bates, Honor, Shaw).
ARKANSAS
FG FT Reb
Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts
Lawson 10 0-2 1-2 0-1 1 0 1
Battle 38 11-15 14-14 0-6 1 0 42
Davis 34 2-8 4-4 2-9 6 4 8
Ellis 24 2-5 1-2 0-0 1 5 5
Mark 35 3-7 2-4 3-7 3 2 10
Mitchell 28 4-8 5-6 1-6 3 5 13
Davenport 16 2-4 0-0 0-3 1 2 5
Blocker 10 1-3 1-2 1-1 0 3 4
Brazile 4 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 0
Totals 200 25-52 28-34 7-33 16 22 88
Percentages: FG .481, FT .824.
3-Point Goals: 10-25, .400 (Battle 6-10, Mark 2-3, Blocker 1-2, Davenport 1-3, Ellis 0-3, Davis 0-4).
Team Rebounds: 0. Team Turnovers: None.
Blocked Shots: 2 (Davis, Mark).
Turnovers: 5 (Davis 2, Ellis 2, Mitchell).
Steals: 4 (Battle, Davis, Ellis, Mitchell).
Missouri 34 39 — 73
Arkansas 36 52 — 88