Mizzou basketball avoids shocker, defeats Wichita State at Mizzou Arena

No shockers here.

Mizzou men’s basketball won its fourth straight game, seeing off Wichita State 82-72 on Sunday at Mizzou Arena, never quite managing to full put the Shockers out of sight, but also never getting caught in the wire-to-wire victory.

Wichita State, despite trailing by double-digits multiple times, got back to within two points with four minutes remaining.

A late Caleb Grill 3, another from Sean East II, who finished with 22 points, and a series of late near misses from Wichita State helped MU survive a potential upset.

Here are three takeaways from the game on Norm Stewart Court:

Around the half

The Tigers made the swing around the half count.

After MU’s 10-0, game-opening run, Wichita State clawed all the way back to a two-point deficit with six minutes to go in the first half.

On the day Mizzou football learned it was going to the Cotton Bowl, Tamar Bates read a pass at the halfway line like a defensive back, picked it off and darted up the court, wound up, and finished it off with a one-handed, arena-stirring dunk.

It put Missouri up 11 with 18 minutes left to play. The Shockers stuck around, but could never catch the Tigers.

It capped off a decisive, half-bridging stretch for MU.

More than that, it looked more like the MU of 2022-23. Joining Bates, freshman Anthony Robinson II had a steal and a fast-break layup to give MU a 41-34 lead at the break.

The Tigers found space from behind the arc, and they made it count. Before the break, Grill dropped a deep 3 from the northwestern tip of the Missouri state outline on Norm Stewart Court. Nick Honor sandwiched that with two wide-open makes from deep.

And MU got to the line. Noah Carter attacked the paint a drew a shooting foul for the second half’s first points. He made both. Missouri had made all of its 12 free throws to that point.

Same starting five

If it ain’t broken, etc.

Mizzou went with the same starting five as in its win on the road against Pittsburgh. Aidan Shaw and Tamar Bates were on from the beginning.

Shaw was an impactful player in the game’s opening period, grabbing four rebounds and dishing two assists by the time he went to the bench for picking up two early fouls.

Bates had a pair of steals in the game’s opening three minutes, but wasn’t able to put up points in the first half, spending just seven minutes on the court.

Whether that will be the starting lineup moving forward, starting with Kansas in the Border War on Saturday in Lawrence, Kansas, remains a question.

Vanover, Grill shine off the bench

Not starting worked out just fine for the players omitted from the starting five — Connor Vanover and Caleb Grill — just fine, too.

Vanover had what was perhaps his best half as a Tiger.

The 7-foot-5 Oral Roberts transfer, who Gates has challenged to show him more, was 3-of-4 shooting from the field, including a second-half 3 from the wing, and made all four of his shots from the free-throw line for an 11-point outing, including nine in the second period.

Grill, a Wichita native, looked like the player MU fans expected when he transferred to Columbia.

He had a team-leading 10 rebounds, which he coupled with a 13-point for his first double-double as a Tiger.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Mizzou basketball prevents shocker, defeats Wichita State at Mizzou Arena