The Missouri Tigers hadn’t won in Starkville, Mississippi since 2013. They hadn’t started a season 6-2 in SEC play ever and they hadn’t won consecutive road games against ranked opponents since 1998-99.
All of those streaks went out the window Saturday as the No. 20 Tigers cruised from start to finish for an 88-61 win in a ranked matchup with the No. 14-ranked Mississippi State Bulldogs.
It was Missouri’s largest road win against a ranked opponent in program history, coming in a building where the Tigers had won only once before and were on an 8-game losing streak.
“To have a road victory in this conference is an unbelievable opportunity and a feat,” Missouri coach Dennis Gates said.
The win marks Gates’ 100th in his career as a head coach, 50 at Missouri and 50 at Cleveland State.
“It just means I’ve got the right players playing hard for me,” Gates said. “... That 100 belongs to a lot of kids, a lot of individuals.”
Once again, the Tigers were led by Caleb Grill, who is up to 15.7 points per game and 50 percent shooting from 3 in the past seven games to help lead to the Tigers to a 6-1 record in that stretch.
He led Missouri with 20 points, while shooting 7-of-12 from the field and 6-of-11 from 3.
But it wasn’t all the expected players scoring for the Tigers in the win.
Josh Gray had a double-double of 10 points and 11 rebounds in 24 minutes played - his first double-double since Jan. 25, 2023 and his first time scoring double-digits as a Tiger - while Trent Pierce had nine points and seven rebounds, Tony Perkins had eight points and five assists and Jacob Crews added nine points with three 3-pointers.
The Tigers stayed hot from deep throughout, going 15-of-32 from 3 as Missouri hit a season-high from beyond the arc.
“I want these guys to play with confidence and that’s what (Grill) was doing,” Gates said. “Just playing with confidence and his team rewarded him with open shots.”
In a season that has already had multiple impressive wins, Saturday topped the list as the Tigers took the lead early and held the advantage for 38:18, while trailing for just 59 seconds once again.
“We’ve yet to reach our full potential, I’m excited to see the day when we do,” Gates said. “But I think we’re trending in the right direction.”
The hot shooting started from the get-go as Perkins hit a 3 with 19:20 left and Mark Mitchell added one of his own with 18:45 left to put the Tigers up 6-0.
A Pierce steal-turned-layup put the Tigers ahead 10-2 with 16:52 left.
Mississippi State charged back to tie the game at 12, then took its only lead of the day at 13-12 with 12:36 left.
Crews hit a 3 from the right wing, his first, to put the Tigers back in front for good with 11:37 left.
Then the Tigers were off and running, a second-chance layup from Gray extended the lead to 17-13, a Grill 3 made it 28-22 and another from nearly half court extended the lead to 43-31 with 50 seconds left.
The Tigers added a second-chance layup from Gray to take a 10-0 and 12-1 run into halftime to lead 45-31.
After Mississippi State cut the lead to 47-37 with 17:49 left to play, the Tigers got running again.
Tamar Bates hit a catch-and-shoot 3 off a Perkins assist, three of Bates’ 14 points, to put the Tigers up 13, then Grill hit a layup, Gray made two free throws and a layup, and Grill hit two 3-pointers to quickly extend the lead to 62-37.
The Tigers had run away with the game on a 15-0 run and never let Mississippi State back within 20.
A Crews 3 with 9:52 left made the lead 26, then Perkins added a layup to get to 71-43.
A Bates 3 with 4:50 left put the Tigers ahead by 29 for their biggest lead of the day at 78-49.
Missouri shot 33-of-60 (55.0 percent) from the field, 15-of-32 (46.9 percent) from 3 and 7-of-10 (70 percent) from the free-throw line.
Mississippi State shot 20-of-55 (36.4 percent) overall, 8-of-26 (30.8 percent) from beyond the arc and 13-of-20 (65 percent) from the line.
The Tigers won the rebounding battle 39-31, assisted on 18-of-33 made shots, led the battle for bench points 46-20 and points in the paint 30-22.
Josh Hubbard led Mississippi State with 24 points, but his second consecutive fantastic performance was in vain Saturday.
Missouri (17-4, 6-2) which is 2-0 halfway through a four-game stretch against ranked opponents, will match up with Tennessee in Knoxville at 6 p.m. Wednesday.
“We knew going into the Ole Miss game that this was going to be the toughest four-game stretch in conference play,” Grill said. “... Our mindset was just to get back on track after the Texas game.”
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