Home schooled

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Missouri made sure Arkansas and Mike Anderson didn’t ruin the Tigers’ perfect home record.

The Tigers pounded the Razorbacks 93-63 Tuesday night before an announced sellout crowd of 15,061 to finish 17-0 at Mizzou Arena this season.

It was sweet revenge for Missouri against the Razorbacks, who rallied to beat the Tigers 73-71 at Walton Arena in Fayetteville earlier this season in the teams’ first SEC match-up.

Anderson coached Missouri for five seasons before leaving to take the Arkansas job after the 2010-2011 season.He was booed loudly during pregame introductions.

“We knew there was going to be a lot of emotion,” said Kikko Haydar, the Razorbacks’ junior guard and team co-captain. “I’m sure this is the game they’ve circled all year and they’ve been waiting for, especially the fans.

“You’ve got to hand it to them. They played well and they got what they came for.”

Senior forward LaurenceBowers led the Tigers (22-8, 11-6 SEC) with 24 points and 10 rebounds. He made 10 of 13 field-goal attempts after shooting 1 of 10 from the field with 2 points and 4 rebounds in the teams’ first meeting Feb. 16.

Bowers said after the game he didn’t want to comment on Anderson.

“It was a hard-fought game, and that’s the big picture,” Bowers said. “It was Missouri vs. Arkansas. I’m just glad that we got the win.”

Anderson and Bowers shared an emotional embrace after the game.

“That was special,” Anderson said. “That was saying, ‘I’m so proud of you, man.’ ”

Haydar said Anderson made sure the Razorbacks understood the game wasn’t about him.

“Coach is a very classy guy,” Haydar said. “He told us before the game that we play the game. I thought he did a great job of not letting that get to him.”

Missouri Coach Frank Haith became emotional during the first half and appeared to be upset with Anderson. Both coaches downplayed that after the game.

“I thought it was a miscommunication,” Haith said. “I’m emotional, and I was emotional for my team. I was encouraging my team and I think he thought I was saying something else, but I was only talking to my team.

“It was just an intense game in terms of we needed to get a conference win. It’s March, so everybody’s battling this time of year.”

Anderson said he didn’t “think it was much” in terms of what at the time appeared to be heated exchange with Haith.

“This was senior night, and you expect emotions to run sky-high, and I thought those seniors set the stage for them,” Anderson said.“They came out and hit us, we kind of hit them back, and then they got a nice little cushion.”

Missouri sophomore guard Jabari Brown scored 23 points. Junior guard Earnest Ross had 11 points, senior forward Alex Oriakhi had 10 points and eight rebounds, and junior point guard Phil Pressey - another Anderson recruit - had eight points and six assists.

Arkansas (18-12, 9-7) was led by sophomore guard BJ Young, who scored 27 points and made 11 of 19 shots from the field. Senior forward Marshawn Powell scored nine points.

The final 30-point margin represented Arkansas’ most-lopsided loss of the season, surpassing a 21-point loss at South Carolina, 75-54, on Jan. 26.

Missouri outscored Arkansas 13-0 the final 3:55 of the first half, capped by junior guard Earnest Ross’ three-pointer with three seconds left, to take a 48-22 lead into halftime. Brown had seven points during the run.

Arkansas didn’t score the final 4:04 of the first half after junior guard Mardracus Wade hit a three-pointer. Arkansas had missed its first 12 three-pointers before Wade connected with the 35-second shot clock running down.

“It was a 13-point game and I thought we were getting ready to really cut into that lead, maybe get it under 10 before the half,” Anderson said. “That’s what you want to happen.

“Obviously, they went on a run and I thought we enabled some of that between free throws and turnovers and not doing a good job on the glass. You cannot get destroyed on the glass and even have a chance in a game of this magnitude.

“The game is a big one. There’s a lot at stake this time of the year. They showed a desperation more so than we did.”

Missouri out-rebounded Arkansas 44-19 and outscored the Razorbacks 14-4 on second-chance points.

The Tigers shot 58.0 percent from the field (29 of 50), while Arkansas shot 43.3 percent (26 of 60), including 6 of 26 on three-pointers.

“Obviously it was a really good game for us,” Haith said. “I thought our guys played really hard.”

Arkansas didn’t pull closer than 18 points in the second half and trailed by as many as 34 points.

“They had a lot of momentum going their way, and they just kept the momentum going for a while,” Young said of the Tigers. “They killed us on the glass. They got a lot more physical than we did.

“Their crowd was really rocking. I think we may have gotten overwhelmed.”

Missouri improved its home record to 84-4 the past five seasons, including 52-3 with Anderson as the Tigers’ coach and 32-1 under Haith. Missouri’s only home loss under Haith came against Kansas State last season.

Arkansas fell to 1-11 in out-of-state games this season, including 1-9 in road games. The Razorbacks’ lone victory away from home came at Auburn, 83-75, on Feb. 13.

Bowers and Oriakhi, who were outscored 37-9 by Powell and Arkansas junior forward Coty Clarke in Fayetteville, held a 34-18 advantage Tuesday night over their counterparts for the Razorbacks.

“They didn’t play well tonight, and those are guys that you count on,” Anderson said. “You don’t have two guys that you count on to step up and play, you’re going to have some problems unless you get somebody else to come off the bench and give you some big, big-time numbers.”