It wasn’t pretty.

The Tigers couldn’t hit a 3, yet kept taking them, and the Howard Bison cut the lead close late.

But Missouri held on for a 77-62 win at Mizzou Arena on Friday, the first Tiger win since Dec. 30, 2023.

“We won the game defensively,” Missouri coach Dennis Gates said. “The first 5-10 minutes, defense, the last 4-5 minutes, defense. I’m excited about the character our guys showed.”

Gates made a couple of changes to the lineup going into his third home opener, starting Iowa transfer guard Tony Perkins and true freshman Annor Boateng, who scored the first points of his career to open the game.

“Annor is one of the most talented freshmen I’ve coached, when I was an assistant or a head coach. He is very, very talented and you guys were able to see that,” Gates said.

Missouri opened the game on an 8-0 run with buckets from Boateng, Tamar Bates and Mark Mitchell, as well as two Mitchell free throws on the way to his 16-point and eight-rebound night.

The Tigers extended to a 10-point lead at 14-4 after Mitchell turned a Perkins steal into a dunk with 12:07 left before halftime.

But Missouri continued to struggle from deep, missing its first 10 attempts from beyond the arc to start the game, keeping the Tigers from building the blowout advantage they expected.

Josh Gray connected on a tip-in with 8:26 left to make the score 18-11, then two Mitchell free throws made it 22-14 with 6:39 left before halftime.

An Anthony Robinson and-1 layup created a 26-17 advantage with 5:10 left, then the Tigers extended the lead to 31-19 after a Marques Warrick scoop layup with 4:10 left.

But the missed 3s kept Howard close until Bates hit Missouri’s first 3 of the game at the buzzer to send the Tigers into the break up 40-28.

“I want to shoot more 3s,” Gates said. “I want guys from every position to shoot 3s. But it wasn’t the night for that. … They were open shots, they’ll fall.”

Missouri maintained a double-digit lead through the first five minutes of the second half, but still couldn’t pull away as the 3s continued to bounce off the rim.

Blake Harper brought Howard into a single-digit deficit with two free throws at the 15:00 mark, but a Bates layup and an Aidan Shaw alley-oop dunk off a Bates assist extended the lead back to 12.

“I threw it late,” Bates said with a laugh.

Shaw then added a layup to create a 14-point margin with 13:31 left to play.

But Howard continued to hang around as the Bison hit 10-of-19 (52.6 percent) of their 3s to Missouri’s 3-of-22 (13.6 percent).

“Coach made an emphasis in our timeouts to make sure we get paint touches and score in the paint,” Shaw said.

“But the 3-pointer was so tempting for most of them, they couldn’t resist it. They could not resist it,” Gates added. “Bates made his baseline out and it’s almost like that stirred it up again. … We have to be able to do certain things other than catch-and-shoot.”

A 6-0 Bison run cut the Tiger lead to 59-52 with 7:18 left to play, then Howard got as close as 61-57 when Marcus Dockery hit a 3 with 4:38 left to play.

But then Marcus Allen got going with two layups in a minute before Robinson turned a steal into an and-1 layup with 3:00 left on the clock to create a 68-59 lead.

Gray added a free throw, Mitchell hit two more and Bates connected on his third 3-pointer of the game, he was the only Tiger to hit a shot from beyond the arc, to create a 74-59 lead with 1:25 left to play, ending a 11-2 run.

Missouri extended to a 77-60 advantage after three Robinson free throws, finishing off his 13-point, three-steal day. Robinson has scored in double digits in both games this season.

“Marcus Allen closed the game for us, we put two freshmen in tough situations they’ve never been in at the college level and they were able to respond,” Gates said. “... Ant Robinson, you saw who he ignite the game, he’s very talented at doing such.”

Bates led the team with 17 points on 6-of-11 shooting overall, including 3-of-7 from beyond the arc, to go with four rebounds, two assists, one block and one steal.

Gray had six rebounds.

The Tigers had only nine assists on a night they committed 12 turnovers.

Missouri won the rebounding battle 34-29.

Missouri shot 24-of-51 (47.1 percent) overall and 26-of-31 (83.9 percent) at the free-throw line. Howard made 22-of-55 (40 percent) from the field and 8-of-10 (80 percent) at the line.

“I’m excited about our growth from last game, specifically defensively and with our free-throw line percentage,” Gates said.

The Tigers (1-1) return to the court Monday when they host Eastern Washington at 6 p.m.

Head on over to the Tiger Walk to discuss the game and so much more.