Mizzou's NCAA Tournament Run Ends Early in First Round Demise to Drake

The Missouri Tigers' NCAA Tournament bid came to a close earlier than they imagined, falling short to the Drake Bulldogs after immense struggles in the first half.

Mar 20, 2025; Wichita, KS, USA; Missouri Tigers guard Tamar Bates (2) dribbles against Drake Bulldogs guard Tavion Banks (6) in the second half of a first round men’s NCAA Tournament game at Intrust Bank Arena. Mandatory Credit: Nick Tre. Smith-Imagn Images / Nick Tre. Smith-Imagn Images

WICHITA, Kan. — The center court of INTRUST Bank Arena was the lone divider between a split crowd of fans. Those who traveled from Iowa, and those who traveled from Missouri — all to meet in a hotly contest between two Midwestern teams.

The bout between the No. 6-seeded Missouri Tigers and the No. 11 Drake Bulldogs Thursday night had the makings of a tense first round matchup of the NCAA Tournament. Wichita alone was a destination that just made sense for Missouri, given Caleb Grill's hometown leniage of legend.

The storybook win that the Tigers could've notched — not to mention a lengthy tournament run — didn't pan out the way one of the Southeastern Conference's strongest teams might've hoped. Missouri played its way back from a subpar offensive performance in the first half, but in the end, it still fell to Drake in a tight 67-57 race.

"It's a memorable season for our guys," coach Dennis Gates said in the postgame press conference. "A great accomplishment, to say the least, but it was cut short. There's no doubt about it. This game does not speak for our success. It's win or losers go home. It's always losers go home in these situations, and we didn't do enough to come away with a win."

The local kid did end up as the leader of the box score, scoring 14 points on 4-of-10 shooting. It was still too little too late though, but the Tigers as a whole didn't provide much of assistance. Mark Mitchell struggled with eight points on 2-of-8 shooting in his return from injury, while Missouri as a team shot 33% from the field and 25% from behind the arc.

The turnover battle was a whole other element, as Drake scored 23 points off the Tigers' 17 total turnovers. Even a 23-of-26 clip from the free-throw line wasn't enough to close the gap.

A season to be remembered as a return to form, culminated in an upset.

"I think if we would have, maybe done a couple things differently on both ends of the floor, it would've been a different outcome," Grill told Missouri On SI. "It's easy to say that now, but if we played them again I think we would've made different adjustments and we would've had a different game plan, and we would have a better understanding of how they're going to guard and attack us."

The Bulldogs dictated much of the first half, as Bennett Stirtz expectedly controlled the offense with 14 points on 5-of-8 shooting. The Tigers only trailed 30-23 at halftime, but it was a sloppy first 20 minutes of basketball nevertheless.

Missouri turned the ball over a whopping 12 times, which Drake took advantage of with a total of 13 points. Grill only recorded four points on 2-of-6 shooting by that point, and as a unit, it only knocked down 7-of-21 field goal attempts. The Bulldogs were playing sound defense, but the Tigers were too failing to show up to their biggest game of the year.

If Missouri didn't want to go home just yet and avoid an early upset, it's best players needed to perform in the second half. Grill, Mitchell nor Bates were cutting it as the leading men, and it had to gain momentum fast.

Initially once the Tigers broke their halftime huddle at stepped back on the court, not much looked different. The offense remained largely inefficent, while Drake continued to thrive in all of its actions — particulary in moving the ball around the floor.

Each time Missouri clawed its way to a potential comeback, the Bulldogs didn't let it develop into anything more than a minor scare. That was, until a Grill's first made 3-pointer of the night cut the deficit to 52-44 with 7:42 to go. By the 6:10 mark, the difference was just 52-48.

Out of thin air, everything trended in the right direction for the Tigers. The defense found its footing and started creating turnovers, and the offense returned to the form they've been used to. Now, it was very much a basketball game.

The struggles of the first half ultimately came back to bite Missouri in the end, however. Despite its best efforts to dethrone Drake from the lead, its opponent still held on. The score got as close to 52-51 with 4:28 to go, but from there it dispersed.

"We had an opportunity to tie the game. That's why we were only down one," Gates said. "We missed a free-throw. I know Mark wants that free-throw back. We just didn't make enough shots or have enough stops. We had too many points off turnovers given to our opponent, and they capitalized on our mistakes."

The Bulldogs honed in down the stretch and finished off the Tigers with free throws and added forced turnovers, turning the lead back to double-digits. The comback for Missouri was short-lived.

Drake will play the winner of No. 3 Texas Tech and No. 14 UNC Wilmington in the second round at a time to be determined Saturday in Wichita.

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