Following three straight wins, Missouri men’s basketball entered Saturday night with a chance to move solidly onto the right side of the bubble for the first time this calendar year.
The Tigers seem destined to stay on the edge of the NCAA Tournament conversation for now, though, after falling to Texas 85-68 in Columbia.
MU took full advantage of its height and physicality during its winning streak, bullying opponents in the paint and on the boards. The Longhorns flipped the script, finishing with
40 points in the paint and frustrating Mizzou’s attempts to score down low.
Texas center Matas Vokietaitas played a key role in the team’s success on the interior, using his physicality on the offensive end to draw fouls on the Tigers and forcing them to pull center Shawn Phillips Jr. for long stretches.
Vokietaitas finished the game with a double-double on 19 points, including a 7-of-8 mark from the free throw line, and 10 rebounds.
Mizzou’s 68 points against UT was its lowest scoring output since the Tigers’ last loss, a 90-64 defeat to Alabama in Tuscaloosa, and its second-lowest total of SEC play.
MU struggled to generate scoring from the perimeter, putting up just 10 three-point attempts and preventing the team from taking the Longhorns’ defensive focus away from the paint.
Texas slowly pulled away in the second half as the Tigers’ offense got bogged down and a litany of fouls and video reviews ground the pace of the game to a halt.
UT took its first double-digit lead roughly halfway through the final 20 minutes on a jumper by Vokietaitas. The Longhorns maintained a cushion of at least seven points the rest of the way, aided by a second-half offensive surge.
Texas put 52 points on the board after halftime as the team added some makes from outside, hitting 4 of its 8 shots from beyond the arc. 6-foot-8 wing Dailyn Swain led UT with 25 points, including half of the team’s six made triples.
Jordan Pope rounded out the Longhorns’ list of double-digit scorers with 15 points. The trio of Pope, Swain and Vokietaitas combined for nearly 70 percent of UT’s scoring output.
Mark Mitchell and Jayden Stone tied for the Mizzou team lead with 16 points apiece, and Stone also led the Tigers with five rebounds.
Anthony Robinson II hit some late shots to finish with 11 points, getting into double digits for the first time since MU’s conference opener against Florida in early January.
The loss moves Mizzou to 17-8 on the season and 7-5 in SEC play.
The Tigers will look to get back in the win column Wednesday against Vanderbilt in Columbia. That game tips off at 8 p.m. and will be broadcast on SEC Network.
