Mark Mitchell's career night, post dominance powers No. 21 Mizzou past Oklahoma

Eli Hoff, St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Feb 12, 2025

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COLUMBIA, Mo. — Oklahoma might as well have had a ghost defending the post. Such was the ease with which Missouri dominated that part of the floor in painting a 82-58 victory over the Sooners on Wednesday.

No. 21 Mizzou (18-6, 7-4 Southeastern Conference) snapped a two-game losing skid with a career-high 25 points plus seven rebounds from power forward Mark Mitchell — a force too strong to be reckoned with by OU (16-8, 3-8).

Shooting guard Caleb Grill knocked down three triples for a 15-point night, the ninth game in which he's made at least three this season. Point guard Tony Perkins added 12 points, most of which came in the second half.

Oklahoma freshman sensation Jeremiah Fears struggled, shooting 3 for 13 from the field to finish with eight points. Jalon Moore, the Sooners' leading scorer, similarly struggled, shooting 3 for 14 for 10 points before fouling out.

The win comes at a helpful time for the Tigers, who are jockeying for seeding status in NCAA Tournament discussions. A win over the struggling Sooners doesn't greatly boost MU's resume, but a loss would have raised some eyebrows about Mizzou's ability to close out an impressive start to conference play.

Meeting for the 213th time in their history — and first as members of the SEC — Missouri and Oklahoma's duel came down to who could score down low.

The Tigers were up for that challenge, which point guard Anthony Robinson II showed that on the game's first possession, securing baseline access to drive inside for a layup. Mitchell scored his first points of the game on MU's next trip down, pump-faking to shake loose his defender for an easy bucket.

It wasn't until Jacob Crews stepped into a 3-pointer eight minutes into the game that Mizzou scored outside of the paint or free throw line.

Oklahoma made a point of constricting inbounds plays, which became thrown in the hosts side — and enough to keep the game close early on. More than 5 1/2 minutes without a point scored by the Sooners, though, saw the Tigers score 10 straight points to open a double-digit lead.

Mitchell scored his 1,000th career point in the first half.

Holding OU to a putrid 23.1% from the field put Mizzou in front by 20 points at halftime.

Missouri leaned on the cushion it built in the first half to stay ahead of the visitors early in the second half, staving off a run through Perkins' timely scoring.

Then Caleb Grill got hot. Back-to-back 3s from the sharpshooter with about 10 minutes to go pushed the MU lead up to 25 points. That was the nail in the coffin for Oklahoma, which lost its third consecutive game.

Takeaways

— Mark Mitchell, impact player. The Duke transfer logged what was by far his best game in a Mizzou uniform. He was repeatedly and relentlessly too much for OU to deal with down low. Perhaps lost in the shuffle of Mitchell's strong outing: His 13 for 18 performance at the free throw line, which was the first time he'd made 10 free throws in a game in his career. Given the volume with which the Sooners fouled him, those free throws were important.

— One of the primary points of praise for MU freshman forward Marcus Allen is his understanding of the game — a rather abstract trait in most cases. Allen's basketball IQ showed up subtly on one first-half possession. As Mitchell brought the ball up the floor, Allen called emphatically for the rock. It was in his grasp for only a fraction of a second, though, as the freshman funneled it to the corner for sharpshooter Caleb Grill — who was getting more cushion than usual off the ball and drained a corner 3.

— For the first time in their coaching careers, Mizzou's Dennis Gates got the better of his younger brother Armon Gates, an Oklahoma assistant. The Gates brothers had faced off twice more than a decade ago when Dennis was an assistant at Northern Illinois and Armon was an assistant at Kent State. The latter's team had won those matchups. Several of their relatives attended Wednesday's family affair, wearing custom-made shirts with Missouri on one sleeve, Oklahoma on the other and Gates emblazoned across the back.

Key moment

The degree to which Mitchell overpowered Oklahoma was evident in how the Sooners treated him on one first half possession.

MU guard Marques Warrick looked to break down the OU defense off the dribble, but couldn't break through. He dumped the ball off to Mitchell, who was calling for it at the right elbow. As soon as Mitchell caught the pass, Sooners coach Porter Moser frantically pointed to the low blocks — he knew where Mitchell was going to try to score.

Sure enough, that's where the power forward went. Mitchell drew heavy contact and a foul in the post, earning a free throw that put the Tigers up by 10 points.

Key stat

40: That's how many points Mizzou scored in the paint — only 18 less than what Oklahoma scored total.

Up next

Missouri hits the road to visit Georgia at 3:30 p.m. ET Saturday. The Bulldogs (16-9, 4-8 SEC) lost to No. 8 Texas A&M Tuesday after an icy second half from the field. Georgia is led by freshman Asa Newell, who averages 15 points and 6.7 rebounds per game — both team highs.

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