Sean East II, Kobe Brown and Nick Honor combined to hit all eight of their free throws in the final 29 seconds in the Missouri Tigers’ 79-76 comeback win over the No. 25 Arkansas Razorbacks Wednesday night in Columbia, Mo.
Trailing by a point at halftime, Missouri (14-4, 3-3 Southeastern) grabbed a 43-37 lead at 16:39 on a slam dunk by Brown, but Arkansas (12-6, 1-5) used an 8-0 run over a span of 1:54 to grab a 53-47 lead at 10:45.
However, the Tigers scored 10 straight points to knot the game at 67 with 2:28 to play to set up the win at the foul line, with East sinking four and Brown and Honor – who had a crucial steal with 18 seconds left – each making a pair.
The victory snapped the Tigers’ two-game losing streak and evened the season series with Arkansas. They lost the first meeting 74-68 on Jan. 4.
Brown had 17 points and six rebounds, and DeAndre Gholston scored 16. East had 12 and made all six of his foul shots as the Tigers improved to 17-12 at home against Arkansas.
Davonte Davis had 18 points, nine rebounds and three assists. Anthony Black had 15 points, eight rebounds, seven assists and two steals. Ricky Council IV netted 13 points, and Jordan Walsh had 12 points in 13 minutes.
Davis and Walsh were two of four players who fouled out for Arkansas, which is off to its worst conference start since joining the SEC in 1991.
In a fast start for the visitors, Council hit a 3-pointer and a dunk as Arkansas pulled out to a 12-5 lead in the rematch’s first eight minutes. But the Tigers chipped away at the deficit as Brown and Mohamed Diarra got hot, then they took the lead for the first time at 18-17 on Aidan Shaw’s trey with 7:13 left on a 13-5 run.
During the first half’s remainder, Arkansas’ sloppiness with the ball became an issue. After committing 17 turnovers in the narrow win in the teams’ first meeting, the club turned the ball over 14 times in the opening 20 minutes.
However, Davis hit his second trey with four seconds left as the Razorbacks took a 35-34 lead at halftime.
–Field Level Media
