Texas A&M takes down Missouri, 79-60

Buzz Williams said he didn’t know Sean East II wasn’t playing until just before Texas A&M’s game against Mizzou.

The Aggies’ head coach said the Tigers are a difficult team to prepare for because of how different they are compared to the rest of the SEC. He’s got an immense amount of respect for MU head coach Dennis Gates and thinks the black and gold are in good hands with him.

But Williams also knows that injuries never help. And losing a leading scorer, such as East, especially doesn’t help.

Matching up for the second time this season on Wednesday, Texas A&M handed the Tigers their biggest loss of conference play inside Mizzou Arena, 79-60.

“Not only are they missing games, but they're also missing practice,” Williams said. “And so I just think the cumulative effect of that over a long season is hard to overcome.”

East was ruled out an hour and 15 minutes before tip-off with a knee contusion that he suffered in the team’s game against Vanderbilt on Saturday. It made him the fifth scholarship player on the roster who couldn’t play due to injury or illness.

Gates was forced to make tough decisions in his substitution patterns as a result. Nick Honor, Tamar Bates, Curt Lewis and Anthony Robinson II were the only guards available to play on the perimeter. Honor sat on the bench for a total of 34 seconds. Bates came out for just 1:55. Lewis earned his first start of the year and played a season-high 27 minutes.

There were times when Gates, trying to give his players a breather, had to sub in a fresh reserve, even if the lineup didn’t make sense positionally.

“I mean, if you just look at (East's) season-by-season stats, he's improved a lot over the summer. He puts a lot of work in, so we're definitely gonna miss that, a guy who can really do it all and create for others and create for himself,” Honor said. “But like Coach says, you know, next man up. No one's gonna feel sorry for us because we were missing a few players due to injuries and stuff like that. But yeah, just next guy up. We definitely missed Sean, for sure.”

“Missing Sean out there was definitely a huge impact on us,” Lewis said. “But you just gotta have the next-man-up mentality. And I feel like Nick and a few guys stepped up and took that extra step in place of Sean today.”

Honor helped the team get off to a decent start. With East out, the graduate senior point guard knew he had to be more aggressive than usual in hunting for his own shot. Honor got a few floaters to fall and hit a 3-pointer in the first period to lead the team with nine points by halftime. He continued to stay in rhythm in the second, too, chipping in another 10 points to finish the game with 19.

But for long stretches of the game, Mizzou had nothing going on the offensive end. A pair of free throws at the end of the first half from Robinson ended a 7:38 scoreless run, leading the Aggies (14-8, 5-4 SEC) to go into the break up 38-25.

The hosts climbed back into it, getting contributions from Honor, Bates, Lewis and graduate senior forward Noah Carter. A triple from Honor on the left wing cut the Tigers’ deficit to 46-43 with 12:57 left to play.

But the visitors would counter with a 13-2 run, with many of the points coming at the free throw line as officials began to call the game tighter. Gates said his team needs to get to the stripe more often when they aren’t seeing the ball go through the hoop. But MU wasn’t able to do it, as Texas A&M raced ahead by 14.

The Tigers never trailed by less than that for the remainder of the evening. Bates ended the night with a team-high 20 points — his fifth time reaching the mark this season — but it wasn’t enough to avoid Mizzou’s 10th-straight loss.

Missouri will hope to get healthier as the season progresses. But Gates knows the team has to do better in the meantime.

“It's almost like we have to play perfect basketball, especially with our injuries,” Gates said. “Our margin of error is very slim, because of those situations we're in and it puts a lot of pressure on the defensive side, the offensive side, to be able to come away with wins.”

With just under eight minutes left in the first half, Texas A&M pulled up and missed on a mid-range jumpshot. Mizzou sophomore forward Aidan Shaw came down with a defensive rebound and pitched it ahead to Bates, who raced up the court in transition.

Bates tried attacking the Aggies’ defense alone, driving into the paint and being met at the rim by graduate senior forward Wildens Leveque. Bates’ layup attempt rimmed out, but Tigers senior center Mabor Majak trailed just behind him. Majak collected the miss and flushed it back through the hoop while absorbing contact for an and-1 putback dunk.

It was the first field goal attempt of the season for the walk-on big man and the first made shot for Majak since joining Missouri in 2022. The dunk energized Mizzou Arena, as well as his teammates.

“It was electric,” Lewis said. “I feel like it gave us momentum as a team and it got our home crowd on their feet. So it was it was a big game-changer, for sure.”

“That's the perfect example of Mabor,” Honor said. “I mean, he just gives his all, day in and day out. You guys are just seeing his hard work pay off. So I'm proud of him. Every time he steps in the game, he gives 100%. So I couldn't say anything bad about him, so shout out to him.”

Majak being fouled triggered the under-eight-minute media timeout. After the break, he walked to the free throw line and converted on his foul shot for the three-point play, giving the Tigers a 23-22 lead.

Texas A&M scored on the next possession and stayed in front the rest of the way as the black and gold fell into its offensive drought. But it was still a moment that impressed Gates, who’s played Majak an average of 13 minutes per game in his last three appearances.

“Mabor's energy was electric,” Gates said. “He was able to put us in a position where we took the lead, which was great. And I thought he did a good job, especially in certain situations — when you look at his inability to stay out of foul trouble, I thought he picked up four fouls. But those fouls, I thought he walled up perfectly, I guess the referees didn't think so. So somehow, someway, he has to do a better job in that situation.”

Mizzou (8-15, 0-10 SEC) remains home this weekend, hosting Mississippi State (15-8, 4-6) on Saturday at 7:30 p.m., the game airing on SEC Network.

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