The Missouri men’s basketball team hosted the Oklahoma Sooners at Mizzou Arena for the 215th meeting in the historic border rivalry.  

Mizzou was a perfect 6-0 against the Sooners in Mizzou Arena heading into today’s matchup. Last year, the two teams split their first matchups as SEC opponents, with each team winning at home. 

Both teams came into the matchup on losing streaks, with Mizzou dropping their last two games, including a heartbreaking home loss to Georgia, and Oklahoma losing their last five. The Tigers rank first in the SEC in scoring defense and also rank first in field goal percentage defense (41.1%) in SEC games. For the Tigers, T.O. Barrett replaced Anthony Robinson II to make his first career start for the Tigers. 

Mizzou got out to a quick lead, but Oklahoma kept it close throughout the first half, with both teams succeeding on opposite areas of the court. The Tigers dominated in the paint and on the glass, while the Sooners were lighting it up from beyond the arc. Both teams struggled to generate quality offensive possessions and turned the ball over a combined 17 times. It was back-and-forth for the majority of the first half, with the Sooners leading 37-36 heading into the break. 

To start the second half, Mizzou’s Mark Mitchell got a quick bucket through traffic, with the scoring lifting him to 1500 career points. Both teams continued to battle it out to start the second half, trading shots left and right and keeping it a tight game. About halfway through the second half Mizzou’s Shawn Phillips Jr. got tangled up on a rebound and elbowed Oklahoma’s Kirill Elatontsev, he was assessed a flagrant foul penalty one. The Missouri trio of Mitchell, Barrett and Jayden Stone started to take over in the second half. The three of them combined for over 75% of the teams points, while the Sooners’ Nijel Pack got hot from beyond the arc to keep the game close. 

Heading into the final few minutes of regulation, both teams continued to go back-and-forth. Tae Davis hit two clutch free throws to give the Sooners a three point lead with just over five seconds left on the game clock. Oklahoma took a timeout to set up their defense, while Dennis Gates and the Tigers tried to draw up a last-second prayer. Barrett took the ball out from under the baseline and drove down the right side of the court, he was then trapped by two Sooner defenders and spun back to hit Trent Pierce trailing down the middle of the court. Pierce caught the ball and squared up to the basket from the edge of the logo and put up one last shot. With the arena falling silent all you could hear was the ball go through the net, making a satisfying swish noise just before Mizzou Arena erupted and the buzzers went off. His shot sent the game to overtime with the two rivals tied at 81. 

The dramatics weren’t over for both teams just yet, as overtime started out slow with both teams struggling to hit shots. With under 30 seconds to go, Barrett hit a layup under the rim to tie the game at 85. Oklahoma responded with Xzayvier Brown hitting a tough fall-away go-ahead bucket to give the Sooners the lead with five seconds left. With no timeouts remaining it was do or die for the Tigers. Mitchell took the ball from the baseline, weaving through traffic before pulling up in front of two Sooner defenders, releasing the ball just before the buzzers rang. Then the arena erupted for the second time as Mitchell’s shot went through the net and gave the Tigers the win. 

Back-to-back buzzer-beating heroics from Pierce and Mitchell gave the Tigers a much needed bounce-back victory over the Sooners. Mitchell, Barrett and Stone all finished with over 20 points and combined for 66 of Missouri’s 88 points. 

The Tigers will look to keep their momentum as they will travel to Tuscaloosa to play No. 17Alabama next week on Jan. 27.