03 Jan 2024 Bears lose rebound battle, fall to Tigers
COLUMBIA, Mo. — A dominant rebounding performance carried the Missouri Tigers to a 92-59 victory over the University of Central Arkansas Bears on Saturday, Dec. 30, at Mizzou Arena.
The Tigers (8-5) finished the day with 47 rebounds, including 21 on the offensive end that resulted in 23 second-chance points. UCA (3-12) totaled just 22 rebounds on the day. UCA’s season low before Saturday was 28 rebounds at Kansas State on Nov. 22.
The Tigers, who had lost three straight games, two to ranked teams, put together a flurry to end the first half and kept it up after intermission. UCA was within 26-25 after a pair of free throws by freshman Tucker Anderson with 7:29 left in the first half. But the Tigers turned that one-point lead into a 46-31 margin at the half by outscoring the Bears 20-6 down the stretch.
Mizzou then came out even hotter in the second half, hitting 6 of its first 7 shots from the field. UCA got three-pointers from Carl Daughtery, Jr., and Johannes Kirsipuu to break the early 7-0 run but the Tigers continued to pull away.
“I told the guys that this might be the only time we ever experience a Power 5 team being really hyped to play us,” said UCA head coach Anthony Boone. “Of course, they watched us against Oklahoma and they saw us as a threat. So they were really up for us, and I’m sure they were challenged to do a good job on the glass.
“I thought our guys did a great job defensively, although it’s hard to tell by the score and their field goal percentage. We can see that with their three-point percentage. But they were just too long and too aggressive on the glass, and that’s what did us in. Their pressure got to us, and we turned the ball over too much and got us out of what we wanted to do a little bit. And we also struggled to finish around the basket.”
The Bears, who played one of their most solid games of the season on Thursday night at No. 12/13 Oklahoma, got 23 points from sophomore Carl Daughtery, Jr., one short of tying his career high. Freshman Tucker Anderson added 11 points, including three three-pointers, before fouling out. Daughtery, Jr., was 4 of 10 from three-point range and the Bears made nine of 28 from beyond the arc for 32.1 percent.
Mizzou’s Tamar Bates was nearly perfect, going 9 of 10 from the field, 3 of 3 from three-point range and 4 of 4 at the free-throw line for a game-high 25 points. He was one of four players in double figures for the Tigers, who shot 53.7 percent from the field but just 25 percent (6 of 24) from beyond the arc. Eleven different Tigers pulled down a rebound, led by Noah Carter with eight.
