Make it two conference wins in a row for the Arkansas Razorbacks (14-13, 5-9 SEC), who were carried to a 88-73 victory by guard Khalif Battle's career-high 42 points against the Missouri Tigers (8-19, 0-14) on Saturday at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville.
Battle played out of his mind by knocking down 11 total field goals, six threes and he was 14 of 14 at the free throw line. He's the first Razorback to score at least 40 points since Mason Jones did so against Auburn on Feb. 4, 2020.
The graduate transfer guard from Temple now has the seventh-most points in a single game in Arkansas program history. He did it all while also grabbing six rebounds and committing zero turnovers. The performance was one point shy of Todd Day's program record of 43 points in an SEC game.
As a team, the Razorback had 16 assists compared to five turnovers. They shot 48.1% from the field, 40.0% from three and 82.4% from the free throw line.
Neither team could get on the scoreboard until Missouri was awarded two free throws via a Flagrant 1 foul on Mitchell at the 16:34 mark. The 6-foot-10 forward aggressively pushed Mizzou forward Noah Carter in the neck area, and an extended review sent Carter to the line to make it a 2-0 game.
Guard Jeremiah Davenport checked in off the bench and missed a three, but he made up for it shortly after by draining the Hogs' first shot from behind the arc to tie the game at 6-6 with 13:35 left in the first half.
Redshirt sophomore forward Trevon Brazile checked in at the 12:32 mark for the first time since a game at Ole Miss on Jan. 24. His entrance was slightly overshadowed by a pair of threes from Missouri guard Nick Honor that gave the Tigers a 15-13 advantage at the under-12 minute media timeout.
A big three from Battle tied the game at 22-22 with just less than eight minutes to play. By that point, the Temple transfer guard had 10 of the Razorbacks points and six of them came via the 3-pointer.
Arkansas scored eight straight after Battle's three to make it an 11-0 run and a 30-22 lead at the final media timeout of the first half. Missouri was in the midst of a 4.5-minute scoring drought and it had missed its last six shots from the field at that point.
The Tigers completely flipped the script, though, and they outscored the Hogs by six points in the final four minutes of the half to make it a 36-34 game when the halftime buzzer went off.
After Arkansas scored the first five points of the second half, Missouri went on a 10-0 run to take a 44-41 lead over the Razorbacks at the 15:50 mark.
It wasn't until just less than four minutes later that the Hogs hit another field goal — a Tramon Mark three — that gave them a two-point lead. On the other end, former Hog Connor Vanover threw down a put-back slam to tie it at 50-50 and Mizzou head coach Dennis Gates called for a timeout with 11:04 remaining.
The Razorbacks went on a 9-2 run after that, and Battle scored seven of those with a pair of threes to push his game total to 32 points, which tied his previous career-high. Battle proceeded to score the next six points for the Hogs, which included him hitting his sixth three and converting a four-point play to get to 38 points on the day and that made the Arkansas lead 65-54 with just less than seven minutes to play.
Battle reached the 40-point mark with 4:55 to play and his layup make it a 10-point advantage for the Razorbacks. He reached 42 points with 2:34 left on the clock to make it a 79-66 lead, and that marked the most points scored by an SEC player in a single game all season.
Arkansas added to its lead down the stretch and finished the game with an 88-73 victory to mark the team's second straight win in SEC play.
Up next, the Razorbacks will host the Vanderbilt Commodores at 8 p.m. CT on Tuesday evening inside Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville. The game will be televised on the SEC Network.
