Missouri Tigers drop second straight basketball game. Here’s what went wrong at Oklahoma
The No. 15-ranked Missouri Tigers men’s basketball team fell 96-84 to the unranked Oklahoma Sooners on Wednesday night at Lloyd Noble Center in Norman, Oklahoma.
Freshman OU guard Jeremiah Fears doubled his per-game season scoring average, pouring in 31 points for host OU (18-12, 5-12 Southeastern Conference).
Mohamed Wague (12 points), Sam Godwin (12) and Jalon Moore (11) also scored in double-figures for the Sooners.
Guard Mark Mitchell led Missouri (21-9, 10-7) with 18 points. Graduate guard Caleb Grill added 16 and Marques Warrick 10.
The Tigers were coming off a 97-93 loss at Vanderbilt in overtime. And at first glance, a final regular-season road game against a team in the league cellar seemed like an OK matchup for coach Dennis Gates’ squad.
Instead, this one was trouble from the start. The Sooners were fired up for their last home game of the 2024-25 season before closing out their SEC schedule at rival Texas on Saturday.
Nothing came easily for Missouri. The Tigers took their first lead when Caleb Grill canned a 3-pointer to make it 19-16, but by late in the opening half MU lagged 47-33.
A hungry NCAA Tournament bubble team, Oklahoma shot a blistering 69% in the first half and led 50-37 at halftime. Grill and Mark Mitchell had 8 first-half points apiece for the Tigers.
OU built its lead when play resumed, surging ahead by as many as 17 points. And every time the Tigers would narrow the gap, as they did on Jacob Crews’ 3-pointer and jumper, the Sooners would pull away again.
Missouri tried to make a final push. Grill canned his third 3-pointer of the evening with just more than 9 minutes remaining to make it 69-57 OU.
Then Tamar Bates coolly sank a 3 of his own, and the Tigers were within single-digits, 69-60, with 8 minutes to go. Grill’s fourth 3-pointer trimmed the margin further still — it was 77-69 with 4:51 remaining.
But that was as close as the Tigers would come to winning their final true road game of the 2024-25 season.
Missouri split its regular-season series with OU. The Tigers beat the Sooners 82-58 in the teams’ first meeting of the season at Mizzou Arena.
Fears was far less fearsome that day, finishing with just 8 points on 3-of-13 shooting from the field.
Now comes the Tigers’ regular-season finale. They play host to No. 19 Kentucky at Mizzou Arena on Saturday in a game that’s scheduled to tip off at 11 a.m.
After that, starting Wednesday, March 12, it’s the SEC Tournament in Nashville. The league tourney continues through March 16 — Selection Sunday for the NCAA Tournament — with March Madness ensuing from there.