Mizzou’s Tamar Bates dribbles away from two Texas A&M defenders in Tuesday night’s NCAA men’s basketball game at Reed Arena in College Station. (Photo courtesy: Texas A&M Athletics)

NCAA Men’s Basketball	1	2	Final
Missouri (8-11, 0-6)	25	32	57
Texas A&M (12-7, 3-3)	30	33	63

Cedric Williams
Senior Editor

COLLEGE STATION, TX — A rough night on offense for both teams ended in a 63-57 loss for the University of Missouri men’s basketball team, Tuesday night, in an SEC league game against host Texas A&M.

Neither team shot well or scored much. Missouri made just 21 of the 54 shots it took (38.9 percent) and Texas A&M shot worse, making only 15 of the 52 shots it took (28.8 percent).

But the Aggies did make several big shots when it mattered and also benefitted from the 37 free throw attempts they were awarded, of which they made 27, to push them over the top and past a Mizzou team that is still looking for its first conference win of the season.

“I thought our guys executed everything,” Mizzou head coach Dennis Gates said. “There are some plays that I wish we could get back and somehow make those open shots that we were, right there, able to take, but they didn’t fall for us. Some of them was in and out.”

Typical of the night for Mizzou, was three straight shots in the final minutes of the game that seemed to be inside the rim but bounced back out.

The first was a three-point attempt by freshman Jordan Butler with 2:42 left. The score was 56-53 and had it gone in, the game would’ve been tied.

Instead, it rimmed out and A&M kept its lead. The Aggies then went down and scored a basket of their own to go up 58-53.

Same thing happened on Mizzou’s next shot attempt. Only this time, it was Jesus Carralero Martin whose shot missed and that led to a made free throw by A&M that increased its lead to 59-53.

Tamar Bates missed a shot in the paint on Missouri’s next possession and A&M came down, drew a foul, and made two free throws to go up 61-53 with 24 seconds left in the game.

At that point, it was just a matter of when would the clock run out in another hard-fought, but tough-to-take Mizzou loss.

“I was quite curious about, you know, the part where we were able to get some looks but not execute,” Gates said. “We got great shots — I’m not worried about that — but we weren’t able to execute how I wanted to you know situations.”

Mizzou trailed by as many as seven points in the second half against A&M, but was able to get within three points, following a four-point play by Sean East with 3:42 to go. A&M got a couple of free throws to go back up five, but Bates hit a jumper with the shot clock running down to get the Tigers within three again.

But that was as close as Mizzou would get, as the Aggies closed the game by making free throws to increase its lead, while the Tigers missed four straight shots before making their final two.

“We held a team to six total field goals in the first half. That’s a tremendous, tremendous thing,” Gates said. “And we wouldn’t be able to come into halftime with the lead. Which, I thought we should have been up 10, 15 points holding to that many field goals in that first half. Second half, the same, they got some easy baskets in transition that obviously cost us from our turnovers. They had 21 points off the turnovers and was able to execute once they got that ball.”

Missouri is now 8-11 on the season and 0-6 in the SEC. The team will get its next shot at its first league win when it travels to South Carolina on Saturday.

Tip off is set for noon, with the game set to air on SEC Network.

Missouri 57

##	Player	GS	MIN	FG	3PT	FT	ORB-DRB	REB	PF	A	TO	BLK	STL	PTS
55	East II, Sean	*	34	6-11	2-4	3-3	0-2	2	4	5	4	0	1	17
02	Bates, Tamar	*	28	7-16	1-4	1-1	0-5	5	4	2	2	0	0	16
10	Honor, Nick	*	29	2-9	2-8	2-2	0-0	0	4	1	1	0	0	8
00	Butler, Jordan	*	23	1-2	1-2	0-0	1-4	5	4	0	0	1	1	3
13	Carralero Martin, Jesus	*	29	0-2	0-2	0-0	2-3	5	1	3	5	0	0	0
35	Carter, Noah		16	3-6	1-3	1-2	3-3	6	4	2	0	0	0	8
04	Lewis, Curt		12	1-3	1-3	0-2	2-4	6	1	1	0	0	1	3
75	Vanover, Connor		9	1-1	0-0	0-0	0-3	3	2	0	0	1	0	2
14	Robinson II, Anthony		12	0-4	0-3	0-0	0-0	0	1	0	0	1	1	0
23	Shaw, Aidan		6	0-0	0-0	0-0	0-1	1	1	0	1	0	0	0
11	Pierce, Trent		2	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	2	0	0	0
	Totals	–	200	21-54	8-29	7-10	8-27	35	26	14	15	3	4	57

Texas A&M 63

##	Player	GS	MIN	FG	3PT	FT	ORB-DRB	REB	PF	A	TO	BLK	STL	PTS
04	Taylor IV,Wade	*	34	5-13	3-9	6-6	1-5	6	2	3	1	0	1	19
23	Radford,Tyrece	*	29	3-8	1-4	4-7	4-3	7	3	2	0	0	0	11
13	Washington,Solomon	*	26	1-7	0-1	1-2	4-4	8	2	1	3	0	1	3
00	Carter,Jace	*	23	1-7	1-7	0-0	0-2	2	1	2	0	0	0	3
10	Leveque,Wildens	*	7	1-2	0-0	0-0	0-1	1	1	0	0	0	0	2
11	Garcia,Andersson		28	2-4	0-1	7-8	2-5	7	2	0	0	1	1	11
15	Coleman III,Henry		26	1-5	0-0	8-12	2-3	5	0	2	1	0	2	10
02	Hefner,Hayden		18	1-4	1-3	1-2	0-2	2	3	2	3	0	1	4
05	Lawrence,Eli		9	0-2	0-2	0-0	0-1	1	2	0	0	0	1	0
TM	TEAM		0	0-0	0-0	0-0	2-0	2	0	0	1	0	0	0
	Totals	–	200	15-52	6-27	27-37	15-26	41	16	12	9	1	7	63

2023-24 Mizzou Tigers Men’s Basketball Schedule

Date	Time	At	Opponent	Location	TV
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.