Mizzou defenders Tamar Bates, Noah Carter, and Jordan Butler crowd Alabama’s Grant Nelson during Tuesday night’s SEC men’s basketball game at Coleman Coliseum in Tuscaloosa. (Photo courtesy: Alabama Athletics)

NCAA Men’s Basketball	1	2	Final
Missouri (8-9, 0-4)	34	41	75
Alabama (12-5, 4-0)	36	57	93

Terrance Williams
Staff Writer

TUSCALOOSA, AL — For the fourth straight game in SEC play, the University of Missouri men’s basketball team stayed close with its opponent for the majority. Unfortunately though, for the fourth straight game, it wasn’t enough.

Missouri trailed by six points with five minutes left on Tuesday against Alabama, but the Tigers were outscored 23-9 in the closing minutes and eventually lost 93-75 in a game at Alabama’s Coleman Coliseum.

“It was going back and forth. Obviously, it’s a game of runs,” Mizzou head coach Dennis Gates said. “In the second half we weren’t able to get the lead. I thought we had multiple opportunities to do such but sometimes that’s how the ball bounce.”

And the way it bounced was into the basket for the Tide, especially in the second half, when the home team scored 57 points and shot a scorching 61 percent (17-28) from the field.

Mizzou battled tough and managed to get the score to 72-66, following a three-pointer by Tamar Bates with 5:03 left in the game. That bucket brought the Tiger bench to its feet and had many in the building thinking Missouri might be in position to pull off an upset.

But that’s when Alabama turned up its pace and outscored the Tigers 12-3 over the 2 1/2 minutes to go up by 84-69 with 2:34 left in the game.

“We kept them out of transition for the most part, but they made some tough half court shots with our guys right there in their face,” Gates said. “And I credit our guys for playing so long. They did a great job in preparation, our staff did a great job in preparation, and ultimately, Alabama got the win.”

Bates led Missouri in scoring. He had 19 points on seven-of-eight shooting, to go along with two steals. Senior Nick Honor, who had been in a shooting slump over the previous six games, bounced back with a five-of-11 shooting night, which included four three-pointers, to finish with 18 points.

Noah Carter had 13 points and Jesus Carralero Martin had 10 points off the bench, as Mizzou fell to 8-9 on the season and 0-4 in SEC play. In each of its previous SEC games, the score was close until the final minutes, before the Tigers eventually fell.

Against Georgia on January 6, Mizzou made just one of its final seven shots. Against Kentucky on January 9, the Tigers made one of its final 11. Against South Carolina, last Saturday, Missouri missed five straight in a game that went to overtime. And on Tuesday, the Tigers made two of its final nine.

The final few minutes has been a problem for Missouri since conference play began.

“You know, it’s a long season,” Honor said. “I mean, the season doesn’t end tomorrow, so we just gotta fix some things and keep our habits. We’ve got good habits but the results don’t always show up right away. So we’re just gonna keep chopping wood, carrying water and we’ll be successful.”

Mizzou will gets its chance to right its ship on Saturday, when the Tigers will host Florida at Mizzou Arena. That game has been scheduled for a 7 p.m. tip and will be televised nationally on ESPNU.

Missouri 75

##	Player	GS	MIN	FG	3PT	FT	ORB-DRB	REB	PF	A	TO	BLK	STL	PTS
02	Bates,Tamar	*	28	7-8	1-1	4-4	0-1	1	1	1	2	0	2	19
10	Honor,Nick	*	32	5-11	4-9	4-6	0-0	0	3	1	0	0	1	18
35	Carter,Noah	*	27	5-11	1-4	2-2	1-0	1	3	3	2	0	0	13
55	East II,Sean	*	30	2-8	0-2	2-2	1-3	4	1	4	2	0	2	6
75	Vanover,Connor	*	9	1-1	0-0	0-0	0-2	2	0	0	0	0	1	2
13	Carralero Martin,Jesus		19	4-7	2-2	0-0	1-2	3	5	0	2	0	1	10
14	Robinson II,Anthony		16	2-4	0-1	1-2	2-0	2	2	0	1	0	1	5
23	Shaw,Aidan		15	0-1	0-0	2-4	1-2	3	1	1	0	0	0	2
00	Butler,Jordan		11	0-1	0-1	0-0	0-3	3	3	0	0	0	1	0
11	Pierce,Trent		6	0-1	0-1	0-0	0-2	2	3	0	0	0	0	0
45	Majak,Mabor		4	0-0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
04	Lewis,Curt		2	0-0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
12	Francois,Jackson		1	0-0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
TM	TEAM		0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0-2	2	0	0	1	0	0	0
	Totals	–	200	26-53	8-21	15-20	6-17	23	22	10	11	0	9	75

Alabama 93

##	Player	GS	MIN	FG	3PT	FT	ORB-DRB	REB	PF	A	TO	BLK	STL	PTS
55	Estrada,Aaron	*	33	7-14	2-6	5-5	4-4	8	4	4	2	1	2	21
03	Griffen,Rylan	*	29	7-9	5-7	2-2	2-3	5	1	3	1	0	1	21
02	Nelson,Grant	*	30	4-6	1-1	4-4	3-5	8	4	3	1	2	0	13
23	Pringle,Nick	*	27	4-7	0-0	2-2	1-2	3	1	0	1	0	0	10
01	Sears,Mark	*	25	3-10	1-4	2-2	0-1	1	0	6	3	0	1	9
12	Wrightsell Jr.,Latrell		24	3-7	3-6	2-2	1-2	3	4	1	1	0	0	11
24	Walters,Sam		8	1-2	1-2	1-2	0-1	1	0	0	1	0	1	4
15	Stevenson,Jarin		11	0-1	0-1	2-2	0-1	1	0	0	2	0	0	2
10	Dioubate,Mouhamed		7	1-1	0-0	0-0	0-2	2	2	1	0	0	1	2
11	Wague,Mohamed		5	0-0	0-0	0-0	0-2	2	0	0	1	0	0	0
04	Cosby Jr.,Davin		1	0-0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
TM	TEAM		0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0-1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Totals	–	200	30-57	13-27	20-21	11-24	35	16	18	13	3	6	93

2023-24 Mizzou Tigers Men’s Basketball Schedule

Date	Time	At	Opponent	Location	TV
January 20, 2024 (Saturday)	7 p.m.	Home	Florida	Mizzou Arena	ESPNU
January 23, 2024 (Tuesday)	8 p.m.	Away	Texas A&M	College Station, Texas
January 27, 2024 (Saturday)	12 p.m.	Away	South Carolina	Columbia, S.C.
January 31, 2024 (Wednesday)	7:30 p.m.	Home	Arkansas	Mizzou Arena
February 3, 2024 (Saturday)	2:30 p.m.	Away	Vanderbilt	Nashville, Tenn.
February 7, 2024 (Wednesday)	8 p.m.	Home	Texas A&M	Mizzou Arena
February 10, 2024 (Saturday)	7:30 p.m.	Home	Mississippi State	Mizzou Arena
February 17, 2024 (Saturday)	7:30 p.m.	Away	Ole Miss	Oxford, Miss.
February 20, 2024 (Tuesday)	6 p.m.	Home	#5 Tennessee	Mizzou Arena
February 24, 2024 (Saturday)	11 a.m.	Away	Arkansas	Fayetteville, Ark.	ESPN or ESPN2
February 28, 2024 (Wednesday)	5:30 p.m. CT	Away	Florida	Gainesville, Fla.
March 2, 2024 (Saturday)	7:30 p.m.	Home	Ole Miss	Mizzou Arena
March 5, 2024 (Tuesday)	8 p.m.	Home	Auburn	Mizzou Arena
March 9, 2024 (Saturday)	7:30 p.m.	Away	LSU	Baton Rouge, La.
March 13-17, 2024 (Wednesday)	TBA	Bridgestone Arena	SEC Tournament	Nashville, Tenn.