Missouri Tigers drop SEC game against Texas A&M on late 3-pointer at Mizzou Arena
The No. 15-ranked Missouri Tigers knew full well the significance of Saturday afternoon’s men’s college basketball game against Southeastern Conference rival Texas A&M at Mizzou Arena in Columbia.
That no doubt made the sting of losing 67-64 to the 10th-ranked Aggies on a late 3-pointer all the more difficult to swallow.
Senior guard Wade Taylor IV sank the decisive bucket from the wing as Texas A&M won its third game in a row and handed Missouri its first home loss of the 2024-25 season.
MU and A&M came in with identical records — 17-5 overall and 6-3 SEC, behind only Auburn and Alabama and tied with Florida in the conference standings. Florida, like Texas A&M, won Saturday to improve to 7-3 in league.
Guard Tamar Bates led Missouri with 16. on Saturday. Junior forward Pharrel Payne led Texas A&M with 20 points.
Sharpshooting MU reserve guard Caleb Grill, the team’s second-leading scorer behind Kansas City native Bates, never really got going Saturday. He finished with four points and was 0 for 4 of from 3-point range.
Senior Missouri guard Jacob Crews finished with 14 points and KC product Mark Mitchell added 12.
Taylor finished with 15 points for A&M, Phelps chipped in 14 and Aggies forward Henry Coleman III grabbed a game-high 16 rebounds.
MU, which had trailed since a 20-20 tie in the first half, came out with more energy after halftime. The Tigers embarked on an 8-0 run to make it 49-49 with 9 minutes, 37 seconds remaining, and they were competitive the rest of the way.
Freshman guard Marcus Allen scored on a driving bucket to give MU its first lead, 51-49, with 8 minutes left. By then, full-throated chants of “M I Z! ... Z O U!” were reverberating throughout the packed arena.
The lead changed hands multiple times until it was 64-64 with 30 seconds left.
The Tigers’ penultimate possession drained the shot clock down to near zero and ended with a heave by Bates that found only iron. From there, the Aggies had 10.1 seconds and possession of the ball. They got the ball to the wing for Taylor’s dagger with 1.8 seconds left.
The visiting Aggies built a 12-0 lead to open the game before the Tigers finally got on the scoreboard. Bates provided the icebreaker with a 3-pointer off Mitchell’s feed at the 14:18 mark.
Crews hit all three of his 3-point attempts in the opening half. Mizzou got it to 20-20 when Texas A&M didn’t score for more than five minutes of game time.
Once the Aggies found the bucket again, they were successful in putting some distance between themselves and their hosts. The Tigers scored their final nine points of the first half at the free-throw line.
Missouri trailed 38-29 at halftime.
Neither squad shot it particularly well from deep on Saturday. The Tigers finished 5 of 21 beyond the 3-point line, the Aggies 5 of 19.
MU was coming off an 85-81 loss at No. 4 Tennessee on Wednesday.
The Tigers’ next game is also at home, on Wednesday at 8 p.m., against Oklahoma, a 70-52 loser to Tennessee on Saturday in Norman, Okla.
Rally For Rhyan game
The Saturday afternoon contest was the 10th annual Rally For Rhyan game. The charitable endeavor has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars over the past decade.
The Rally For Rhyan fundraiser was founded to help Rhyan Loos, who was battling Stage 4 high-risk neuroblastoma — pediatric cancer. Loos’ father, Brad, was an assistant coach on the MU men’s basketball staff from 2013-17 and is now the senior associate athletic director of development for MU athletics.
The event has evolved in the 10 years since its inception. Since Rhyan’s recovery, it has become a fundraiser for cancer patients across the country.
Grant Salsman of the Columbia Missourian contributed to this report.
This story was originally published February 8, 2025 at 4:58 PM.