51ºÚÁÏ

KANSAS CITY — Missouri men’s basketball coach Dennis Gates grimaced from the sideline, looking like he was suffering through an unpleasantly sour piece of candy. And then came the high-flying dunk.

With 13:26 left in the Tigers’ 93-87 loss to Seton Hall on Sunday in Kansas City, the Pirates inbounded with a lob to unchecked forward Dre Davis, who cocked back to catch the ball before slamming it through the rim.

The dunk, by that point, was an exclamation point, some bitter icing, some salt in a wound that showed how the Big East team was able to drive and shoot its way around MU with ease, even as the Tigers threatened a late-game comeback.

Seton Hall entered the game known as a team that prioritized getting to the rim, and that was no problem for the visiting Pirates, who went 17 for 21 on layups and scored 44 points in the paint compared with Mizzou’s 30.

“They made some tough paint shots — really good paint shots,� Gates said.

And those weren’t the only openings. A Seton Hall team that had never made more than eight 3s in a game while shooting 28.9% from beyond the arc had converted that many through the first 61 seconds of the second half, finishing with 10 made at a 43.5% clip.

Overall, the Pirates went an efficient and generally unhindered 58.9% from the field.

“It’s impossible to win ballgames if your opponent is going to shoot 60%,� Gates said. “They made shots ... and I thought some of them were just open looks and the basketball went in for them.�

“They were playing way too comfortable,� forward Jesus Carralero Martin added.

“We gave them paint touches, they were swinging the ball and then the next pass was wide open.�

Three Seton Hall players — Al-Amir Dawes, Davis and Dylan Addae-Wusu — scored their season highs in points, combining for 64. Missouri’s leading scorer was guard Tamar Bates, who matched a career-high 22 points, including 15 in the first half.

Despite playing one of his best-ever college games in front of family and friends, Bates seemed rather unenthused after the game.

“The stats is cool and all, but the bigger picture is about getting W’s,� he said.

Bates, who hails from Kansas City, Kansas, provided a spark when the Tigers needed one to keep pace with the Pirates in a competitive — and momentarily contentious — first 20 minutes.

He scored MU’s first five points of the game with a 3-pointer off a recycled possession and a well-timed cut to the rim before later hitting a quick-release transition 3 from the corner to give the Tigers a 10-8 lead.

Another Bates 3, when Mizzou was trailing by eight with just under six minutes to go in the first half, capped off a bit of the drive-and-kick style of play that Seton Hall was using with consistent effect, but the Tigers offense failed to find much consistency in the half court.

The game took a spicy turn close to halftime when a scuffle broke out in front of the Seton Hall bench after some objections to MU point guard Nick Honor throwing the ball off an opponent and out of bounds to salvage a possession. The brief bit of shoving that followed prompted a technical foul on each team and brought the Tigers within two points on an ensuing basket.

After trailing by four points at the break, Mizzou began the second half by feeding Carralero Martin at the rim to close the gap to two points once again. Any threat that the Tigers presented, though, was stifled by a 13-1 run by Seton Hall that ultimately decided the game.

It was shortly after that run, with Missouri stuck attempting to pull off a double-digit comeback for the second consecutive game, that Seton Hall made its statement slam.

The Tigers didn’t go without any opportunities to close the gap down the stretch. After point guard Sean East II made a 3 and arced in a physical layup, he went to the free-throw line with a chance to cut the lead to single digits — only to uncharacteristically miss both.

Freshman forward Trent Pierce, brought into the game as one of Gates’ final options to provide some defensive size, stepped up with a steal and block on back-to-back defensive possessions, setting up the required stops for East to land at the free-throw line with a chance to avenge his prior misses. He did so, bringing the lead down to eight, and then finishing a fast-break layup to make the score 76-70 with 3½ minutes left in the game.

Seton Hall played more composed basketball in those close-game moments, sticking to its diet of paint touches and continuing to score at the rim and free-throw line as the Tigers intentionally fouled.

The last-ditch effort flashed some capability on MU’s part, just too little given far too late.

“We just didn’t do enough of it over a course of 40 minutes,� Gates said. “The last four minutes of basketball was electric.�

“When we tip the ball up, we have to start the game with a mentality of ‘We’re already down 10,’� Bates said. “When we dig those holes, that’s when we get desperate (and) we play really hard.�

Sunday’s loss moves Missouri to 7-4 on the season with two nonconference games to go. No. 16 Illinois (8-2) is next up for Mizzou, with the annual Braggin’ Rights rivalry game set for 8 p.m. Friday at the Enterprise Center in 51ºÚÁÏ.