Razorbacks fall ugly on the road

Arkansas coach Jimmy Dykes appeals a no call against Grambling State Monday, Dec. 29, 2014 in the second half at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville. The Razorbacks won 77-35.

The Arkansas women's basketball team's hopes of earning an at-large bid in the NCAA Tournament took another blow Sunday afternoon in Columbia, Mo.

Missouri held Arkansas to 11 points and 13.6 percent shooting in the first half as the Tigers jumped in front and never looked back while defeating the Razorbacks 57-41 in the teams' SEC regular-season finale at Mizzou Arena.

"It's hard to win a third-grade basketball game with 11 points in the first half," Arkansas Coach Jimmy Dykes said. "Missouri's defense is really good. They pack it in. They take away things and force you to make shots. We didn't make shots."

The loss dropped Arkansas to 16-12 overall and 6-10 in SEC play and left the Razorbacks as the No. 9 seed in the SEC Tournament, which begins Wednesday at Verizon Arena in North Little Rock. Arkansas will face eighth-seeded Ole Miss (17-12) at noon Thursday.

More than likely Arkansas will need a strong showing in the conference tournament if it hopes to advance to its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2012.

Dykes said earlier this week that he considered Sunday's' game against Missouri a "must-win" regarding the team's chances of earning an at-large bid for the NCAA Tournament, but the Razorbacks came out flat offensively against the Tigers and never recovered as they lost for the third time in their past four games.

The Razorbacks made only 3 of 22 shots in the opening half and trailed 24-11 going into intermission. The 11 points tied a program low for an SEC game, matching Arkansas' first-half performance in a 68-38 loss to Tennessee in 2012.

Arkansas' offensive numbers improved to 12 of 33 (36.4 percent) in the second half, but that wasn't enough to overcome a Missouri team that made 10 of 29 shots (34.5 percent) in the second half and shot 34.5 percent (19 of 55) for the game.

Sierra Michaelis was 3 of 3 from behind the three-point line and scored a team-high 15 points for Missouri (17-12, 7-9), which earned the No. 7 seed for the conference tournament and will play 10th-seeded Georgia at 6 p.m. Thursday. Jordan Frericks added 10 points and Morgan Stock had nine.

"It has been a challenging year, but I am really proud of them," Missouri Coach Robin Pingeton said. "I think we are playing our best basketball right now, and that is what you hope to do at the end of February and into March, so I'm just really proud of our kids."

Jessica Jackson had a game-high 19 points and 11 rebounds for Arkansas and Jhasmin Bowen added 11 points and 10 rebounds, but the rest of the Razorbacks struggled offensively as only two others scored. Kelsey Brooks had eight points and Melissa Wolff managed three, but Arkansas did not get a point from its bench.

"Missouri had 13 bench points to our zero," Dykes said. "That's always a concern for us. We didn't get any bench production today."

Rebounding kept Arkansas in the game early, and back-to-back three-pointers by Jackson and Brooks helped the Razorbacks close the gap to 10-8 with 11:51 to go in the first half. Missouri took control of the game when Arkansas went more than 12 minutes without a field goal to close out the half.

Arkansas hit two quick baskets to open the second half, but the Tigers offense was steady and never allowed Arkansas back in the game. Missouri took its largest lead, 57-33, on a three-pointer by Michaelis with 3:53 left in the game.

Sports on 03/02/2015