Arkansas men's basketball team clips No. 10 Missouri in overtime

Missouri men's basketball faced an increasingly difficult task Saturday.

The Tigers looked to complete a rare regular-season sweep against a resilient Arkansas team while playing without perhaps their best player, Jeremiah Tilmon.

The Missouri center took a leave of absence from the team because of a death in the family, the program announced before tipoff.

Without the 6-foot-10 Tilmon, the Tigers relied more on perimeter shooting than in any other game this season. They made a season-high 13 shots from beyond the arc, but it wasn't enough to fend off the Razorbacks.

Arkansas defeated Missouri 86-81 in overtime at Mizzou Arena.

Saturday marked the sixth annual Rally For Rhyan game, and the Tigers were unable to keep an undefeated record in the event despite a 23-point effort from Xavier Pinson to lead all scorers.

Dru Smith was the only other MU player to score in double figures, finishing with 15. 

No. 10 Missouri falls to 13-5 overall and 6-5 in Southeastern Conference play. Arkansas improves to 16-5 overall and 8-4 in league play. 

The Tigers appeared to take the lead with under 30 seconds left in overtime on a Smith drive that initially was called goaltending on Arkansas. The officials reviewed the play and determined it was a clean block by the Razorbacks' Jalen Tate. Missouri retained the ball by virtue of the possession arrow.

Smith then tried a similar play, but couldn't cleanly pass the ball to Parker Braun and committed a turnover.

Missouri had a chance down three to send the game to double overtime, but a 3-point attempt by Pinson was contested and never reached the rim. 

The Tigers were down by four with less than a minute left in regulation before close-range shots from Mitchell Smith and Braun helped send the game to overtime, alongside a Braun block on what could have been a game-winning shot for the Razorbacks.

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Missouri was shorthanded for much of the final 15 minutes of the game, with Mitchell Smith fouling out and Kobe Brown playing only six minutes in the second half. 

Brown was seen working with a team trainer on a lower-body injury and used the team's massage gun on his calf. Tigers head coach Cuonzo Martin said after the game that Brown was cramping.

Arkansas has won six straight conference games, dating to a Jan. 16 loss to first-place Alabama. 

Missouri is now 5-1 in games decided by five points or less this season, the same all-time record it holds in Rally For Rhyan games, played in honor of cancer survivor Rhyan Loos, the daughter of former Tigers assistant coach Brad Loos.

Missouri is scheduled to return to action Tuesday night with a road game against Georgia. Tipoff is slated for 5:30 p.m. on SEC Network.

Contact Eric Blum at eblum@columbiatribune.com. Follow @ByEricBlum on Twitter.