Tamar Bates needed more than a few seconds to collect his thoughts.

He’d been asked in Missouri’s postgame press conference about his development with the Tigers and how he’d seen his game progress. He was asked the question because he’d just dropped a career-high 36 points in Saturday’s game against Florida.

But he took a moment to think about his answer because the performance was for nothing. Despite finding a way to score just about every time he touched the ball, Bates wasn’t able to lead his team to a victory, suffering a loss to the Gators inside Mizzou Arena, 79-67.

“He had an excellent night,” head coach Dennis Gates said earlier in the press conference. “He had excellent practices. But ultimately, I think when it comes down to the game, Tamar takes what's given to him. As you guys can see, he's an excellent scorer. He would rather have the win than 36 points, I know that. But you know, individual performance-wise, it was probably one of the best I've seen in a long time.”

The junior guard found himself in a flow early in the matchup. Bates missed a 3-pointer from the left corner with the hosts’ opening possession, but the Tigers came up with a stop at the other end and pitched the ball ahead to him in transition. Bates drove inside and scored on a layup for the team’s first points of the game.

Gates employed a trapping defense throughout the first half, doubling Florida’s ball-handlers anytime they received a screen. The strategy worked early on: the Gators (12-6, 2-3 SEC) committed three turnovers in the first 7:03 of the game, helping Mizzou establish a 12-9 edge.

The visitors would adjust, however, only coughing the ball up five more times for the rest of the night. The Gators’ ball-handler typically passed out of the trap to a big man, who’d drive to the basket and put MU’s rim-protector at a 2-on-1 disadvantage.

MU led by as much as four during the first half but couldn’t pull away farther than that. By halftime, the Tigers found themselves down, 37-34. Gates felt like his team’s struggles rebounding the ball contributed to the slip-up as well.

“I thought we had an excellent game plan and we kept them on their heels,” Gates said. “We weren't able to secure those rebounds. On the other side of that, we were having guys make the right plays but the rotations didn't allow us to sustain certain rebounds.”

Still, heading into the second period, Missouri was in a one-possession game and appeared ready to continue to fight. The team switched to a zone defense and came up with a few stops early on. Bates scored another layup with their first trip down the floor, then drilled a mid-range pull-up jumper one minute later. A 3-pointer from graduate senior point guard Nick Honor put the team back in front, 41-40, with 17:44 remaining in the half.

Florida and Bates traded blows on the next two possessions, but the Tigers fell into a two-minute cold spell that allowed the visitors to race back in front by five. Missouri never regained its footing, trailing by double digits for the final 7:36 of the evening.

It wasn’t for a lack of trying on Bates’ part. The Indiana transfer continued picking the Gators’ defense apart, showing strong touch in the paint and finesse in the mid-range. But no one else from Missouri’s roster was able to step up and help carry the load. Bates finished the game shooting 13-21 from the field — the rest of the team was a combined 10-32.

“Losing sucks. Nobody really likes that,” Honor said. “But we all just gotta stay focused on our work and what we're doing. It's not like we're out here getting blown out, going out there like that. So it's just, you know, SEC play, it's quick turnarounds. We just gotta move onto the next one and just try to be 1-0 every game. So we're not really losing any confidence. Basketball in general is just ups and downs. So we're going through it right now but I mean, we'll definitely come out on top eventually.”

Bates scored over half of Mizzou’s points. He’s the first Tiger to have 36 points in a game since Xavier Pinson reached the threshold in a 102-98 overtime home win over TCU on January 30, 2021. It should’ve been one of the proudest nights of the season for the Kansas City, Kan. native.

But it wasn’t enough to snap the team’s five-game losing streak. As far as he’s come, there’s still further to go. After silently reflecting on the question about his development during the postgame presser for about 10 seconds, Bates finally answered.

“I mean, I kind of knew with time I was just going to be able to play better and give more,” Bates said. “And like I said earlier, it's just the product of constant work, constant communication with my teammates and the coaches. Like, little things just away from like the floor, outside of just working out. But the development here is second to none. And you know, I can't thank them enough just for giving me the opportunity and allowing me to come and start games and just trust me to be one of the leaders on the floor, you know, help us win some games.

“You know, the development and all that, it is what it is. But at this point in the season, that development has to translate to wins.”

For the second game in a row, Mizzou’s leading scorer on the year was held in check.

Sean East II was feeling under the weather earlier in the week — Gates said that the graduate senior guard missed the team’s shootaround on Monday, the day before their game against Alabama. East went on to play 30 minutes against the Crimson Tide anyway, but only produced six points on 2-8 shooting from the floor.

On Friday, during the Tigers’ pregame press conference, Gates made it seem like East was on the mend, saying he had not missed one rep in practice in the days leading up to this weekend's contest. But Mizzou’s most-improved player from last season still didn’t appear to be himself on Saturday, shooting 2-7 and only scoring six points.

East scored a pair of free throws in the first half that gave the hosts their first lead of the game at 6-5. He’d only take three more shots in the period, though, connecting on one. In the second half, he fumbled a pass from graduate senior forward Noah Carter that resulted in a steal and score by the visitors. A few possessions later, East tried sending a post entry feed to graduate senior center Connor Vanover, but had his pass picked off. Florida then went on a 6-0 run.

The guard finished the night with a plus/minus of negative-11.

“The one play that I think, in the second half, I saw him sort of be upset with himself (was) when he turned that ball over,” Gates said. “It was between him and Noah ... he didn't recover from that mistake. But credit Florida, they did a good job at containing, but also contesting.”

Mizzou (8-10, 0-5 SEC) heads back out on the road still in search of its first conference win, squaring off with Texas A&M (11-7, 2-3) on Tuesday at 8 p.m., the game airing on SEC Network.

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