How one of Mizzou basketball’s greatest strengths just wasn’t enough at Arkansas
When the Missouri Tigers cut the Arkansas Razorbacks’ lead to two points with 2 minutes, 43 seconds left in Saturday’s game, it appeared MU might pull off another upset.
Then the Hogs hit back-to-back three-pointers.
But Mizzou wasn’t dead yet, working it down to a one-possession game with a little more than a minute left.
Then the Hogs hit another three.
In the end, the Tigers (13-14, 5-9 SEC) were buried by the Arkansas three-point shooting in a 78-68 loss at Bud Walton Arena. Whenever Mizzou got close, the Razorbacks (17-10, 5-9) had an answer.
While the Hogs were cold from distance over their five-game losing streak — shooting 31% from three-point range — they were 48% from behind the arc against the Tigers Saturday. In contrast, Mizzou shot just 19% from deep, unable to keep up with the Razorbacks’ barrage.
Mizzou’s three-point defense is one of its greatest strengths. But the Razorbacks couldn’t be stopped in this one — especially late in the game.
“Road environment, it becomes a mental focus, the concentration, the attention to detail,” Mizzou coach Cuonzo Martin said. “We had a lot of breakdowns. I thought the energy was there. It’s hard when you’re on the road.”
Coming into the game, both teams were top-10 nationally in three-point defense. Arkansas was No. 1 at 25.7% while Mizzou was No. 10 at 28.5%.
Arkansas made only one more field goal than Mizzou and both were an identical 16-for-20 from the free-throw line. Saturday boiled down to the three-pointer.
“You have to give them credit,” Martin said. “I would imagine we would make more if we were wide open and nobody was on the floor. Give them credit for doing a good job, making us take the tough ones.”
While Martin said he planned to watch the game film more closely later, he pointed out defensive breakdowns on at least six of Arkansas’ 12 threes. With the home crowd providing Arkansas some additional energy, it was a similar script for Mizzou in its ninth road loss of the season.
“We’ve just got to do a better job of running them off the line,” guard Xavier Pinson said. “We can’t let the crowd and the threes get to us. I feel like they hit threes, then the crowd got into the game and it got to us.
Early on, it looked like Mizzou was going to run Arkansas off the floor. The Tigers hit their first five field goals and had a 13-point lead midway through the first half. Then the Hogs built their comeback, using two 10-0 runs to take a halftime lead. Even when Arkansas struggled early, the Hogs hit three-pointers to keep it close.
After a great start, Mizzou had a scoreless drought of 4 minutes, 56 seconds. Kobe Brown finished with a career-high 17 points; Pinson and Dru Smith had 15 points each.
“They did a good job of having guys waiting for us in the paint,” Smith said. “As we were getting downhill, they did a good job of kind of sneaking in and running guys off the three-point line. They had a solid game plan.”
The Tigers are now 1-9 away from Mizzou Arena. They next travel to Vanderbilt, the last-place team in the SEC, for an 8 p.m. tip Wednesday in Nashville.
“We have to take games when you’re on the road,” Martin said. “We’ll get there.”