Tuesday wasn’t the night for the Missouri Tigers.
Shots weren’t falling, rebounds and 50/50 balls were going the other way and the Texas Longhorns put together a late run to take the lead in a 61-53 win in Texas.
The loss ends a four-game Tiger winning streak as Missouri put up its lowest point total of the season by far. The previous low was 68 against Auburn to open SEC play.
“I thought it was an unbelievably-physical game,” Missouri coach Dennis Gates said. “Our guys did a great job of responding.”
In the first half, the Tigers couldn’t buy a basket, but they stormed out of halftime and were able to tie the game at the 15:26 points when Trent Pierce took a Tony Perkins assist for a 3 from the right wing.
Then the Tigers took the lead when Anthony Robinson turned a steal into a clear-path foul and two free throws, giving the Tigers a 38-36 lead and the ball with 15:08 left to play.
But the Tigers weren’t able to capitalize on the extra possession.
After another of the game’s three ties, Perkins hit a 3 from the right wing off a Tamar Bates assist to go up 41-39, then a Josh Gray free throw made it 42-40 with 13:16 left.
A Caleb Grill free throw and two more from Marcus Allen put the Tigers up 45-41 and it seemed as if the Tigers were set to play another game of holding off a late comeback attempt with key baskets.
Mark Mitchell drove from the left wing, backing down a defender and playing bully ball in the lane for a layup, then Bates faked a cut to the left corner to send his defender stumbling away before driving for a vicious one-handed dunk to put the Tigers up 49-46.
But then Texas answered with a 10-1 run as it jumped ahead 56-50 helped by two Tiger fouls and two turnovers in a two-minute stretch.
Another key offensive foul and turnover by Gray with Missouri down 56-51 after a Texas miss ended the Tigers’ chance as the Longhorns hit their free throws the rest of the way.
“We shot a low percentage at the rim and we’ve got to be able to come out with those and-1 baskets that we’ve got to make,” Gates said.
The game started ugly for both teams as the first point wasn’t scored until a Texas free throw with 16:19 left in the first half, then Bates hit a layup for the game’s first made basket with 15:57 left before halftime.
Texas didn’t hit its first shot from the field until the 11:48 mark, a Kadin Shedrick layup that put the Longhorns ahead 5-4 after a Robinson jumper that had originally been called goaltending was overturned during the U12 timeout.
The first 3-pointer wasn’t made until the 9:12 mark of the first half as the teams combined to miss their first 13 attempts from beyond the arc.
After taking the lead on its first made basket, Texas held it the rest of the way through the first half as Missouri had its worst half of the season scoring wise, putting up just 25 points after scoring 50 or more in the first half of the past two games.
“We got in early foul trouble, it impacted our intensity,” Gates said. “We didn’t allow ourselves to block out, cut out, how we normally have.”
Missouri shot just 15-of-48 (31.3 percent) from the field, 4-of-22 (18.2 percent) from 3 and 19-of-27 (70.4 percent) at the free-throw line.
Bates led the team with 10 points and was the only Tiger in double figures. Mitchell had seven points and six rebounds. Perkins had six points and three assists. Robinson and Pierce each had eight points.
Texas shot 17-of-50 (34.0 percent) from the field, 4-of-20 (20 percent) from 3 and 23-of-30 (76.7 percent) from the free-throw line.
Texas outrebounded Missouri 39-31, including pulling down 14 offensive boards that turned into a 20-4 lead in second-chance points.
No. 22 Missouri (15-4, 4-2 SEC) will have another tough test as it looks to get back in the win column when it hosts No. 16 Ole Miss at 5 p.m. Saturday.
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