With the final few seconds of the first half ticking off the clock, Xavier Pinson dribbled at the top of the key and stared down Auburn’s J’Von McCormick. Pinson had gotten to the rim almost any time he wanted to that point, but he hesitated perhaps a bit too long trying to determine whether McCormick would go under or try to slide under a ball screen and ran out of time to drive. Ultimately, Pinson simply rose up and shot the ball from about 23 feet.
The shot went in. Missouri’s players ran off the floor whooping and yelling at Pinson, leading No. 11 Auburn by 13 points.
“I didn’t know if (McCormick) was going to go under that screen or under it, so he jumped, so I just shot it,” Pinson said. “I don’t know. But it did rally up my teammates and the crowd.”
While the deep three-pointer might not have been the play Cuonzo Martin drew up, it was emblematic of the night for Pinson and backcourt mate Dru Smith. Both players consistently sliced through Auburn’s defense and mixed in the occasional perimeter shot to carry Missouri’s offense in an 85-73 win over No. 11 Auburn.
Both Pinson and Smith scored a career-high 28 points, becoming the first Missouri duo to do so since Jordan Clarkson and Jabari Brown on Feb. 1, 2014. It had been even longer since the home Tigers beat a team ranked 11th or higher — the last time came on Feb. 19, 2013, when Frank Haith’s team beat No. 5 Florida.
Missouri once again took the floor without starters Mark Smith and Jeremiah Tilmon, and Martin said the staff told the backcourt to be assertive. Dru Smith, especially, looked for his shot from the opening tip. He scored 18 points in the first half.
“You have two guards out there that can make a shot but also can get downhill, make plays, and scouting report, how Auburn defends, those opportunities are there,” Martin said. “You have to drive the ball, because they don’t really allow you to go east-west, they pressure you so much, and I thought Dru and X early took advantage of that.”
It was only recently, because of Mark Smith’s injury that Pinson and Dru Smith started playing together regularly. Because they are the team’s two primary point guards, Martin said they almost never practice on the same team, so there was a bit of an adjustment period after Pinson replaced Mark Smith in the starting lineup. But during the past three games — probably Missouri’s best three-game stretch of the year — Pinson and Dru Smith have gelled. Pinson has averaged 20.3 pointer per game during that span, while Dru Smith has averaged 19.7.
“It definitely was a little weird at first,” Dru Smith said. “It was weird for me to play off the ball. But I love it. I love having X out there with me. When he’s being aggressive and whenever we’re both being aggressive it gives us a good chance to win games.”
The two players contrast stylistically. Dru Smith is more methodical, using pivots, pump fakes or his size to get open looks down low or draw fouls. Pinson described his backcourt mate as “sneaky.” Pinson, on the other hand, is smaller, quicker, more explosive. Dru Smith said it is “almost impossible, without somebody helping you” to stay between Pinson and the basket.
But while they may do so differently, both are adept at getting to the rim and drawing fouls. Dru Smith shot 13 free throws Saturday, while Pinson shot eight. Dru Smith believes the contrast between their styles of play stopping them more difficult to defend.
“He obviously plays a lot quicker than I do, and he’s a lot quicker left to right and everything like that, so I think it does give them a little trouble,” Dru Smith said. “It gives them different looks, so it’s hard to kind of switch because I think it contrasts each other well.”
Pinson and Dru Smith didn’t only contribute scoring. The duo handled Auburn’s full-court press — a weakness for Missouri in seasons past — with aplomb. The home Tigers only turned the ball over nine times. Teammates also said they played a large role in keeping the team composed during a chippy, foul-laden second half that saw three technical fouls assessed and one player ejected.
“Every timeout, every huddle, anything, they just had words of encouragement to the rest of the guys and just kept us moving forward,” freshman Kobe Brown said.
But most important, in a game in which Missouri knew it would have to put up some points to keep pace with Auburn, Pinson and Dru Smith attacked the rim early and often. Any time the team needed a bucket, it turned to the co-point guards, and they delivered.
“Both are natural passers, they’re willing passers, but they can score the ball,” Martin said. “So for them to have 28 points, that’s what (Auburn) presented, and they took advantage of it.”
