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

Last night, we highlighted Missouri’s troublesome trend of starting slow, despite shaking up its starting lineup Tuesday. One of the reasons for the scoring woes in the first 10 minutes is that the Tigers failed to get the ball to Jeremiah Tilmon. Cuonzo Martin and his players have maintained all season that the offense needs to run through Tilmon, yet the junior center didn’t attempt his first field goal until the second half.

Part of that is on Tilmon. As has often been the case during his college career, he found himself in early foul trouble, picking up one foul while pursuing a defensive rebound and another away from the ball on the offensive end. That forced him to miss the final 10:51 of the first half. Plus, when he was in the game, Martin said he wasn’t assertive early on.

“I thought he did a good job being more aggressive (in the second half),” Martin said of Tilmon. “But you need that out the gate. You need that out the gate from him.”

Once Missouri finally started feeding Tilmon with regularity, he dominated the undersized Charleston Southern frontcourt. Tilmon scored all 15 of his points in the second half. At one point, he scored on four consecutive possessions. Missouri even had success passing the ball into the post during its opening drought — the Tigers’ only field goal in the first 10 minutes came via a Kobe Brown post-up — yet nine of the team’s first 13 shots came from behind the three-point arc. None went in.

The aforementioned three-point shooting woes have been one of the surprises of Missouri’s season so far. A year ago, the Tigers shot better than 36 percent from three-point range, which ranked 78th nationally. Against Charleston Southern, the Tigers made just four of 26 shots from behind the arc.

Aside from backup center Mitchell Smith, who made both of his two attempts, the rest of the team shot a dismal two for 24. That brings Missouri’s season percentage down to 25.4 percent — No. 336 out of 353 Division I teams.

After the game, Martin said Charleston Southern’s defensive strategy was to deny the ball to Tilmon in the post and dare Missouri to shoot from outside. Early in the game, he felt his players took the bait and settled for three-pointers when they could have worked the ball inside. When the shots didn’t fall, it sapped the confidence of the group.

“I thought we settled in the first half from three,” Martin said. “Then I thought a couple guys were hesitant in the second half. ... And if they don’t go, now all of a sudden, late in the game, they take their percentages, play their chances, and all of a sudden you’re hesitant to shoot the ball, now they’re not going in.”

Martin has long maintained that, as long as his players defend, rebound and give high effort, they have the green light to shoot. It might be time to adjust that stance a bit. The Tigers missed their first nine and final nine three-point attempts Tuesday. At a certain point, the offense needs to rely less on outside shots.

Missouri has not closed out close games well all season, but exacerbating those problems Tuesday was the fact that the Tigers had to play the final 8:46 without their point guard. Junior Dru Smith fouled out in 23 minutes. Smith only contributed two points, but Missouri missed his guiding presence; when he left the game, the Tigers led 45-44. They got outscored 24-15 down the stretch.

“It hurts because he’s a guy you count on,” Martin said.

Smith didn’t pick up his third foul until 12:02 remained in the game. However, he got whistled again less than 30 seconds later. Martin then removed him from the game, but he sat on the bench for just 1:24. Martin trusted the point guard to stay out of foul trouble for the remaining 10:15. Smith made it less than two minutes before being whistled for a reach.

“He knew he had four fouls, and the foul he got was just unfortunate because he’s swiping from the corner,” Martin said. “Dru’s an intelligent player. He knows better than that.”

Tuesday marked the first time this season Smith has fouled out, but foul trouble wasn’t new to him. Smith has been called for at least three fouls in every Missouri game since the season-opener. Twice in the past four games, he’s been called for four. It hasn’t impacted Smith’s minutes much — this marked the first time this season he’s played less than 25 minutes — but it’s a trend to continue to monitor moving forward.

CAUSE FOR OPTIMISM: There’s no sugar-coating this one. it’s hard to come away optimistic about much of anything. If Missouri can lose to Charleston Southern, it can lose to any team left on its schedule. But perhaps that’s one small silver lining — if the Tigers needed something to jolt them into making changes (to how they start games, their shot selection, etc.) Tuesday’s result should certainly provide it.

CAUSE FOR CONCERN: This is the worst Missouri loss since KenPom.com came into existence in 2002. Worse, according to opponent ranking at time of tip, than any loss during the Kim Anderson era. Not only does this further torpedo the Tigers’ chances of returning to the NCAA Tournament this season and kill any remaining momentum for this season, it raises serious questions about the direction of the program under Martin, who is virtually guaranteed to remain at the helm for the next two-and-a-half years.

STOCK UP: Mitchell Smith. The backup big man served as one of the few bright spots for Missouri. Smith hit both of his three-point attempts and tied his career high with 10 points in just 12 minutes. Martin tried putting him on the floor alongside Tilmon at times during the second half, but Smith’s four fouls and Charleston Southern’s three-point shooting success limited how much he was able to stick with that lineup.

STOCK DOWN: The sophomore class. One reason for the optimism surrounding Missouri at the start of this season was that the three true players asked to play significant roles as true freshmen last season — Xavier Pinson, Torrence Watson and Javon Pickett — would benefit from the experience and improve. While each has shown flashes at points this season, they remain inconsistent. None played well against Charleston Southern. Pinson continued his season-long shooting slump, missing all three of his three-point attempts and shooting one-of-five from the field. He scored just six points in 32 minutes and turned the ball over four times. Pickett made a few key offensive plays but turned the ball over twice and drew Martin’s ire in the postgame for failing to close out on a corner three in the final minutes. Watson attempted seven threes and made none. He finished with no points, one rebound, two fouls and two turnovers in 25 minutes.

UP NEXT: Missouri (4-4) will travel to Philadelphia for a road matchup against Temple (6-1) on Saturday. Tipoff is set for 6:30 p.m.