How Tamar Bates and Caleb Grill powered Missouri Tigers to hoops win vs. ranked Ole Miss

A game-opening 8-0 run by visiting Mississippi darkened the mood early at Mizzou Arena, but Missouri Tigers men’s basketball standouts Tamar Bates and Caleb Grill had other plans for the evening.

Bates scored 26 points and Grill added 25 as No. 22 MU held off the No. 16 Rebels 83-75 in a Southeastern Conference showdown of ranked teams.

“These two to my right and left,” said MU coach Dennis Gates, seated between Bates and Grill in the postgame news conference, “they carried us. They made big play after big play, and they were definitely doing the same in the huddle with their leadership. So I’m proud of these two.”

With Mizzou scoreless early, it was Bates who fueled the Tigers on a 12-0 run of their own. He scored 10 points during this stretch, hitting two 3-pointers.

Bates has opened the scoring for the Tigers in all seven of their SEC games thus far this season.

“It just happens on accident, most of the time,” Bates said. “Most of the time the first play is never drawn up for me.”

Grill, too, stepped up in big moments Saturday. In the first half, he recorded a four-point play to push Mizzou’s lead to nine: He sank a contested 3-pointer, drew a foul on Malik Dia and hit the free throw.

Missouri (16-4, 5-2 SEC) led 38-31 at halftime and maintained distance on the Rebels (15-5, 4-3) throughout the second half.

Bates’ 26 points came on 8-of-13 shooting. The Kansas City native was 4-of-6 from 3-point range. Grill’s 25 off the bench included a 6-for-10 performance from long-range. A native of Wichita, Kan., he shot 7-of-13 overall.

As a team, the Tigers’ shooting was much improved from what they showed in Tuesday’s loss at Texas. Against the Longhorns, Mizzou shot 31.3% from the field; MU shot 44.9% against Ole Miss.

“Coming in here,” Gates said, “we wanted to give our very best coming (off) the Texas game, and I think our guys did that.”

Missouri was successful in creating foul trouble for the Rebels’ starters Saturday, with Jaemyn Brakefield fouling out and Jaylen Murray and Dia accumulating four fouls apiece.

“I thought we did a better job making the right plays on our opportunities tonight,” Grill said.

Mizzou struggled from the free-throw line in the second half, making just 22 of 31 second-half attempts. Bates and Grill were both 4-for-4 from the line after intermission, however, which was no small thing in a game decided by eight points.

Dia led Ole Miss with 17 points.

The Tigers won the battle on this glass against Ole Miss after being outrebounded by Texas. Mizzou had 39 rebounds to the Rebels’ 28.

That plus-11 rebounding margin is the best for the Tigers since a Nov. 27 nonconference game against Lindenwood (+21).

“After (The Texas loss) our mindset was to not let the defensive side of the ball be dictated on if we’re making or missing a shot or not,” Bates said.

Next up: The Tigers are back in action Saturday, Feb. 1, with a trip to Starkville, Miss., to face Mississippi State. Tipoff is set for noon Central Time.