Missouri men's basketball pushed No. 20 Arkansas as much as it could but fell steadily behind the pro-laden Razorbacks in a 94-86 defeat. The Tigers started well. The Hogs just had more firepower to pour in points.

For the Tigers: Power forward Mark Mitchell was excellent for the visitors, scoring 26 points with eight assists. Forward Trent Pierce also notched 22 points.

As a team, Mizzou shot above 55% from the field for just the second time in SEC play. The other occurrence was in a win over Auburn.

MU is now 18-9 overall and 8-6 against Southeastern Conference opponents.

For the Razorbacks: This Arkansas team looks like a classic John Calipari unit, with a dynamic, scoring backcourt — and several future pros. Guard Billy Richmond III scored 21 points while star freshman Darius Acuff Jr. managed 20. In total, five Razorbacks scored at least 12 points.

Arkansas is now 20-7 overall and 10-4 in SEC play.

For the series: The Hogs have now won nine of the last 11 matchups with the Tigers. These teams will meet again in Columbia on March 7, the last day of the regular season.

That's a first: Saturday's loss was the first time this season Mizzou has lost a game while scoring at least 73 points. The Tigers had been 18-0 this year when hitting that threshold and 0-8 when coming up short of it.

Bubble talk: Saturday's tilt has long looked like the most difficult game on Missouri's schedule, so a loss isn't particularly surprising. It may hurt the Tigers' NCAA tournament outlook in the short term, but their path to the postseason hasn't really changed because it never realistically included a win in Fayetteville.

The margin of defeat was slightly better than what some metrics predicted, which could mitigate the effects of the loss.

Getting up early: In the opening minutes, MU center Shawn Phillips Jr. finished off a lob on one end of the floor, then was called for goaltending while trying block a shot on the responding defensive possession. A few minutes later, Phillips blocked a shot for real.

Summon the unicorn: Trent Burns, of 7-foot-5 frame and fame, was one of the Tigers' first subs following a "player of the game" outing against Vanderbilt on Wednesday. A 3-point attempt of his shortly after entering the game was not effective. An and-one dunk of Burns' off a feed from Mitchell, though, was emphatic. He dunked again shortly after, barely needing to leave his feet.

That's why he's a star: Mitchell started the game 5 for 5 from the field with 12 points (and two assists) inside the first 10 minutes.

Old friend alert: Arkansas forward Trevon Brazile, who started 23 games for Mizzou during the 2021-22 season, blocked a Jacob Crews layup attempt with some vigor. Brazile's next activity was more helpful to his old team: He missed an open 3-pointer, extending a scoring drought that lasted nearly three minutes — and allowed MU to build up an eight-point lead.

Regressing to the mean: The Razorbacks went five minutes without a made field goal as the Tigers took command. Then the Hogs made five consecutive shots, cutting the gap to two points and forcing a Gates timeout. After the stoppage: turnover Missouri, second-chance jumper for Arkansas, tie ballgame.

Old friend alert (part II): Brazile's second 3-point attempt of the game was good, and gave the Razorbacks the lead a couple of minutes before halftime.

A rivalry after all? MU left the floor through a different tunnel than normal after a minor scuffle between the teams at the end of the first half. One of the outstretched arms of the Hogs' Billy Richmond III collided with Crews seconds before the clock expired, leading to some hostilities and a flagrant foul for Richmond.

Arkansas staffers, including the school's athletics director, tried to stop the Tigers from using that exit — normally, the two teams use the same tunnel at Bud Walton Arena — but Gates managed to push past.

Break time breakdown: Arkansas led 47-41 at halftime. Both teams took 29 shots in the first half, with the Razorbacks making one more 3-pointer, three more free throws and committing three fewer turnovers as the difference. The first 15 minutes or so of the first half were some of Mizzou's best basketball this season. The final five were enough to wipe out that progress.

Foul trouble (part I): T.O. Barrett, the Tigers' current primary point guard, picked up his fourth foul with 17:17 left in the game.

Other trouble: Gates called his second-to-last timeout of the game with 9:22 remaining when Richmond notched a second-chance layup to put the Hogs up by nine — their biggest lead to that point.

Foul trouble (part II): Phillips' fourth foul came with 8:53 to go as he tried to knock the ball out of Brazile's grasp, forcing Gates to put Burns back in at center. Trent Pierce picked up his fourth foul at the 6:28 mark.

Big trouble: Arkansas' Meleek Thomas rattled off five points in 22 seconds to extend his team's lead to 10 points with just over five minutes to play. Gates called his fourth and final timeout, trying to stop the run, which never quite slowed.

On deck: Missouri returns to Columbia for its penultimate home game of the season, hosting Tennessee on Tuesday. The Volunteers (10-7, 10-4 SEC) knocked off No. 19 Vanderbilt on the road earlier Saturday in a close game.

Smack talk material, for the road: Unranked Cincinnati beat No. 8 Kansas 84-68 in Lawrence earlier Saturday. The last time the Jayhawks lost to an unranked opponent by double digits inside Allen Fieldhouse was in 1993.

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