Arkansas Defeats Men’s Basketball

Fayetteville, Ark. – Behind 42 points from Khalif Battle, Arkansas defeated the Missouri men’s basketball team, 88-73, on Saturday in SEC action.

Graduate guard Sean East II led the Tigers with a career-best 33 points, making 9-of-14 field goals and 15-of-16 from the free-throw line. Nick Honor and Tamar Bates also scored in double figures with 14 and 11 points, respectively.

Behind three-straight triples from Honor, the Tigers claimed a 20-15 lead early in the contest. However, Arkansas would answer a couple of minutes later with an 11-0 run to pull in front by eight, 30-22. East led a strong finish to the half for Mizzou, scoring 10 of the team’s final 12 points as Arkansas led by just two points at the break, 36-34.

The Razorbacks (14-13, 5-9 SEC) pushed their advantage to seven with the first five points of the second period. Missouri would quickly seize the momentum back with a 10-0 run for a 44-41 advantage. The game would stay close until midway through the period when a 12-2 Arkansas run turned a 53-52 lead into a 65-54 advantage. Battle scored all 12 of the points for the hosts during the run as Mizzou (8-19, 0-14 SEC) would only pull within eight points for the remainder of the game.

Arkansas finished the game by shooting 48.1 percent from the field and 10-of-25 from 3-point range. The Tigers, meanwhile, connected on 39.2 percent of its attempts with 5-of-19 performance beyond the arc. Both teams were also to take advantage of the free-throw line with the Razorbacks making 28-of-34 and the Tigers going 28-of-30.

UP NEXT
The Tigers return to action on Wednesday with a road tilt at Florida. Tipoff is set for 5:30 p.m. on SEC Network.