Joe shows off killer instinct late to take down Missouri

Arkansas guard Isaiah Joe is guarded by Missouri guard Mark Smith during a game Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2019, in Fayetteville.

— Arkansas freshman guard Isaiah Joe is a polite and quiet young man who is one of the nicest people you could ever hope to meet.

But he’s also a baby-faced assassin at times, including Wednesday night when he started throwing daggers at visiting Missouri down the stretch of a 72-60 Arkansas win.

Joe finished with a game-high 23 points while going 8-of-13 from the field and 7-of-12 from 3-point range.

Joe, who leads the SEC with 68 made 3-pointers, launched his two biggest threes in a 36-second span late in the second half with Arkansas leading 62-59.

“I'm always moving, always moving and trying to screen for others and others are trying to screen for me, so when I got the ball I knew I was open and I had the shot,” Joe said. “I saw Dan down there. They were working him, so I knew I had to knock it down.”

It was a welcome sight for Arkansas coach Mike Anderson, whose Razorbacks (11-7, 2-4 SEC) were riding a four-game losing streak that was the worst slide in his eight years in Fayetteville. Arkansas rallied to beat Missouri after falling behind 17-4.

“Probably about the last three games, now he’s starting to play with that spirit,” Anderson said of Joe. “To me, that Razorback spirit, the spirit that you talked about with the mindset of being aggressive, being more assertive. We’re seeing him go off the dribble a lot more, and not just settling. … Even defensively you can see him engaged, touching balls. He’s learning.

“Just like our team. It’s amazing. You watch the first half and then you watch the second half and you wonder sometimes: is it the same guys out there? We had nine turnovers at halftime. I think we ended up with 14 for the game. So that means we had five in the second half, and playing at that pace.

“To me the mark of our team is we value the basketball. We want to create turnovers, but we value the basketball. So it’s still a learning process I’m sure for him. But it was good to see him step up in big moments. … but I thought tempo had a lot to do with that.”

Missouri coach Cuonzo Martin admits he was surprised by Joe, who had four of his 3-pointers by halftime.

“He’s a good shooter,” Martin said. “He’s a good player. I’ve obviously watched him on film you know and he’s a talented player. But he’s better than I thought he was when you see him in person. Because he’s moving, he’s long, he can move, he can ball-handle, he can shoot the ball, he’s active. He’s a good player.”

Joe’s seven 3-pointers were three off of his season high in a 10 against Florida International on Dec. 1.

He is shooting 44.7 percent from 3-point range this season and averaging 14.9 points, which is second on the team to Daniel Gafford (16.3).

Joe said his team did not panic when down 17-4 and got back within 34-32 at halftime.

“We’ve just got to focus in and stay together as a team, don't disperse, stick together and be strong because we've been down in situations like this before and came back, so we knew we could bounce back,” Joe said. “We just needed to start it on the defensive end and that's what we did.”