Arkansas was outstanding in the first half and then held off a Missouri rally for a 91-84 win in Columbia on Wednesday night.

Missouri only had one lead, 2-0, in the game. The Hogs raced out to a 47-28 lead at halftime in what was probably their best half of basketball this season and certainly in SEC play. Tramon Mark was outstanding with 22 points, four rebounds, three steals and two blocks. Makhi Mitchell celebrated his 24th birthday with 19 points and 14 rebounds. Mitchell helped lead an Arkansas attack that outscored the Tigers 56-30 in the paint. The points in the paint advantage wasn't by accident according to Eric Musselman when asked if that was a point of emphasis?

"I would say more than a point of emphasis," Musselman replied. "It was a mandate to score in what we call zone one. If you settled for threes tonight, you probably were going to come out and not go back in. We did not want to take a lot of three-point shots tonight.

"This Razorback basketball team for the last 80 minutes of play has played really good basketball. Tonight’s 40 minutes, we played very well against Kentucky. Lost the game, they got loose on some threes, and the last four minutes of that game not good tonight. But to go on the road and lead for 37 minutes is really, really hard to do. Really proud of us offensively scoring 47 and 44 in the two halves. I thought we did a phenomenal job sharing the basketball."

Mitchell was pleased to help the Hogs get the win on his birthday.

"It means a lot," Mitchell said. "My birthday comes around one time a year, you know. Having a game on my birthday is pretty special to me, so I just go out there and play hard as I do every game and try to do what I can to help the team."

Arkansas shot 54% (33-61) from the field made 4-of-6 from behind the 3-point stripe. For the second game in a row the Razorbacks won the battle of the boards. The Hogs pulled down 35 rebounds to 26 for Missouri. Arkansas also forced 18 turnovers and scored 25 points off of them.

"Defensive activity is where it needs to be with 10 steals," Musselman said. "This group tonight played like teams of the past, creating steals, jumping in passing lanes, sharing the basketball. Super proud of the 40-minute effort tonight."

Missouri was topped in scoring by Tamar Bates with 29 points. Sean East had a good game with 11 points, six rebounds and seven assists. Anthony Robinson had 10 points. Missouri (8-13, 0-8) remained winless in SEC play and now has lost 11 of its last 12 games. Despite the good effort by Bates and the Tigers, Arkansas was in control of the game from the start.

"I thought we played great basketball," Musselman said. "There was a renewed sense of urgency, a focus, a disposition pregame. It was a team that was ready to play. I’m proud of their toughness tonight, proud of the way that we defended in the first half. In the second half when you’re playing with a lead defensively, you don’t want to put them at the foul line and have the clock stopped, so defensively we’ve got some things we have to clean up before we go to Baton Rouge on Saturday for an early tip. But the team had fun tonight. You could see it. They competed, they had fun while they were out there and just, again, when’s the last time we had 10 steals in a game this year? So two really good steps in the right direction. You want your basketball team to be improving. I thought the last 80 minutes we’ve improved as much as any two games that we’ve had this year."

Arkansas got solid point guard play from Keyon Menifield. He had 16 points, two steals, three assists and only one turnover. Jalen Graham added 13 points, only one rebound, but four assists, three blocks and four steals. Layden Blocker chipped in nine points, three rebounds, two assists and a steal. Khalif Battle added six points, three rebounds, two assists and a couple of steals. Chandler Lawson had six points and three rebounds.

"Point guard play was phenomenal," Musselman said. "I give it an A-plus. Keyon had much… I mean, Keyon the last two days at practice, he was focused, so he got the nod tonight getting 32 minutes. His free throws were very important going 6 for 6 and the ball flows really well when he’s out there. I thought he made a couple of great pocket passes that might not have gone down as assists because maybe one of our bigs took two or three dribbles.

"But I thought our offense was really good. I mean, 91 points on the road is a large number and I thought we played consistently offensively both halves. I thought defensively the first half (was) great. Defensively the second half, much areas that we need to improve on."

Arkansas (11-10, 2-6) will be at LSU on Saturday for an 11 a.m. tip on ESPN2. LSU (11-9, 3-4) hasn't played since losing to Alabama 109-88 this past Saturday. They enter the Arkansas game having lost three in a row and four of their past five.