| Columbia Daily Tribune
Missouri men’s basketball needed a game where things ended well.
Many times in the past month, blown lead has caused unnecessary stress and damage to Tigers.
None of this existed on Saturday in Columbia, South Carolina, while Missouri’s number 20 achieved victory and ended its streak of three losing games.
The Tigers overcame South Carolina by 93-78 at the Colonial Life Arena, improving to 14-6 overall and 7-6 at the Southeast Conference. Gamecocks drop to 5-11 overall and 3-9 in the league standings after losing their fifth consecutive game.
Missouri’s 93 points were the maximum in the regulation this season, surpassing an 89 point attempt against TCU in late January and 91 points against Oral Roberts at the opening of the season.
The victory is the 250th of his 13-year career as a top coach for Cuonzo Martin, with 64 in Missouri.
Jeremiah Tilmon returned to the court after two games away from the Tigers for personal reasons to tie for the team’s lead on the scoreboard off the bench. He finished with 17 points by shooting 5 out of 5 from the field and 7 out of 7 from the free-throw line.
Dru Smith also scored 17 points for Missouri, with Xavier Pinson next with 16. Mark Smith added 13 points and Kobe Brown had 12.
South Carolina’s AJ Lawson led all scorers with 22 points.
Missouri has only one road game left this season and plays the next two at home, starting with a rematch against Mississippi on Tuesday.
Here are five things we learned from Missouri’s victory over South Carolina:
1. Tigers use a balanced offensive attack
Three weeks ago, against TCU, Pinson scored 36 points and Tilmon finished with 33.
Martin knew he couldn’t count on that kind of scoring in every game.
When five players scored between 12 and 17 points for Missouri on Saturday, their vision for the Tigers’ attack was more on display.
“I’m going to take this. Now, there may be nights when the guys do this because last year, several games, Dru Smith and X were scoring the ball. I have no problem with that,” said Martin. “But I think our balance comes from both sides of basketball. When we are defending and playing hard, we can have balance.”
Another problem for Missouri in the past was the secondary score. This was not a problem against South Carolina, as the Tigers scored 35 points off the bench. This total is helped with Tilmon far from his usual starting role.
However, the contributions of Parker Braun, Torrence Watson and Javon Pickett are starting to be more consistent.
2. Missouri prevented another collapse
Midway through the second half, Missouri started a five-minute straight, where they scored 8 of 9 field goals to consistently increase the score and avoid giving up a big advantage.
Part of that strategy was Martin giving a two minute timeout in the second half, when the Gamecocks started running. South Carolina reduced the lead by one point to just seven, but Missouri had an answer at each step.
“At break, we all got together,” said Mark Smith. “We said, ‘We need to nip it in the bud now. We need to make it work again. ‘ And I think that’s exactly what we did. Dru got a robbery and one and one. And then, we start from there. “
Looking at other projected teams from the NCAA Tournament, seven teams that are ranked ahead of the Tigers on the NET (Missouri is No. 43) have experienced a losing streak of three games or more this season.
Of the 2019 Final Four teams, three had a losing streak of at least three games.
3. Tilmon shows no rust in return
Prior to the program’s Tilmon license, he had not scored double digits in his last three games.
Martin did not start the 1.80m highlight in his first game in 10 days, but he always turned to him off the bench.
In addition to his 17 points and not missing a shot or free throw, Tilmon had a turn and no foul in 21 minutes.
Seven free throws in one game tie Tilmon’s record in Missouri. It is the first time that he makes seven without losing.
It is evident how much the East St. Louis native means to Tigers. Having him back in the locker room seemed to give Missouri an emotional and physical boost.
“It made a big impact in both areas,” said Dru Smith. “We all know what (Tilmon) can do on the floor. Just having him out there, just having that presence at the post leaves the other guys looking … Just having his presence on the floor is something that I can’t really replace, so it was definitely good to have him back and Obviously we are all happy and the energy has been raised a little bit just to get it back. “
Tilmon paid tribute to his late grandmother on the back of his shoes.
4. Tigers hold meetings for players only
No one was happy with the team’s recent three-game losing streak.
Instead of containing these feelings, the MU list held a meeting to vent these frustrations and, more importantly, discuss how to move forward with better results.
“You just expect everything to be disclosed,” said Dru Smith of the meeting. “You take everything out of your chest, anything that is bothering someone, anything that someone has to say that they think can help, anything that will help us.
“We want to put it on the air, just try to understand where we are fighting and what we need to improve.
“And then figure out ways that we, as a team, with our coaches, can fix this.”
5. It was a mandatory victory for morale
Losing four consecutive contests at this point in the season would not only make Missouri fall from the national ranking two weeks after securing tenth place, but also to an unnecessary frenzy.
The Tigers have relatively safe hopes for the NCAA Tournament, with many national projections still listing them as quasi-blocks to reach the 68-team field.
But another defeat would have led to tough ramifications in terms of national significance and across the conference.
That didn’t happen, and Missouri is back on the winning streak.
Tigers’ focus now shifts only to avenge their previous defeat to Ole Miss, the first defeat of their recent fall.
Contact Eric Blum at [email protected]. Follow @ByEricBlum on Twitter.
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