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basketball Edit

And-One: Blowout loss drops Mizzou under .500

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Following each Mizzou basketball game this season, we will highlight a few notable takeaways from the performance in the ‘And-One.’


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West Virginia's 21-0 run dooms Mizzou

Missouri entered Saturday’s road matchup with No. 14 West Virginia as a double-digit underdog, and it didn’t take long for the Mountaineers to jump out to a big lead. But despite falling into a 20-6 hole to start the game, Missouri clawed its way back and only trailed by a point, 24-23, at halftime.

The Tigers started the second half even worse. This time, they could not recover. West Virginia cruised to a 74-51 win that dropped Missouri to 9-10 on the season.

West Virginia and Missouri traded baskets to begin the second 20 minutes, then the Tigers went scoreless for more than six-and-a-half minutes. During that span, West Virginia scored 21 unanswered points. Missouri missed seven consecutive shots and turned the ball over four times during the run, while West Virginia got points from six different players. In all, the Mountaineers outscored the Tigers 50-28 during the second half.

Offensive struggles reach new depths

West Virginia entered Saturday as the best field goal percentage defense in the country. Missouri entered Saturday having shot 31.8 percent across its past three games, all losses. So it probably shouldn’t have come as a surprise that the Tiger offense struggled mightily. Missouri shot just 28.3 percent from the field, which eclipsed Tuesday’s loss against Texas A&M for its lowest mark of the season.

Missouri started the game making just two of its first 18 shots and missing its first eight threes. The team wound up shooting 15 of 53 overall and 7 of 26 from three (26.9 percent). The Tigers have actually had eight worse performances from three-point range this season, which shows the extent of their shooting struggles, though Saturday would have looked worse on paper had Torrence Watson not made three three-pointers in the final minutes, well after the game had been decided. The Tigers’ 51 points represented their second-lowest scoring performance of the year.

No one was immune from Missouri’s offensive struggles. Among the eight Tiger players to attempt multiple field goals, only Watson shot 50 percent or better. The starting five of Dru Smith, Mark Smith, Mitchell Smith, Reed Nikko and Javon Pickett combined to shoot 3 of 23 and scored a total of 14 points.

Mark Smith scored the most points of any Mizzou starter with just five.
Mark Smith scored the most points of any Mizzou starter with just five. (Jessi Dodge)

Mountaineers dominate down low

Missouri continued to miss junior forward Jeremiah Tilmon, who missed his sixth game in a row due to a stress fracture in his left foot. West Virginia feasted in the paint and on the glass.

Mountaineer freshman Oscar Tshiebwe scored 13 points and grabbed eight rebounds in 23 minutes. His frontcourt mate Derek Culver scored just four points but added 11 boards in 19 minutes. As a team, the Mountaineers scored 26 points in the paint. They entered the game as the second-best offensive rebounding team in the country, and they dominated on the glass, out-rebounding Missouri 50 to 30. Twenty-one of those rebounds came on the offensive glass and led to 27 second-chance points. On the other end, Missouri mustered just 14 points in the paint.

Game at a Glance

CAUSE FOR OPTIMISM: Missouri didn’t fold after a rough start, at least initially. The Tigers went down 20-6 in the first half but battled back with a 9-0 run and cut the lead to one point. Ultimately, of course, it was of little consequence, as the Tigers were thoroughly out-manned.

CAUSE FOR CONCERN: Missouri’s offense looked totally, completely overmatched. And while West Virginia’s defense is certainly better than most, these type of shooting performances are becoming the norm. This was the third game in a row Missouri has shot worse than 30 percent from three-point range and the fourth time in the past seven games the team has failed to reach 60 points. This team simply doesn’t have enough scorers to compete against the majority of high-major opponents.

STOCK UP: Axel Okongo. We had to pick someone for this spot. The big man who made his Missouri debut earlier this month scored his first career points with a dunk that ended West Virginia’s 21-0 run.

STOCK DOWN: Mitchell Smith. Smith continued to be a non-factor on the offensive end, scoring just two points and shooting 1-6 from the field. He missed all five of his three-point attempts despite being left wide open for the majority of them. He has now missed 13 consecutive attempts from behind the arc.

UP NEXT: Missouri (9-10) will host Georgia (11-7) on Tuesday. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m.

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