Missouri’s Wednesday matchup against Morehead State couldn’t have started much better. On the Tigers’ first possession, Jeremiah Tilmon got the ball in the post, spied Mark Smith open at the top of the key and kicked the ball out to him. Smith drained a three-pointer. The next time down the floor, Dru Smith dished to Mark Smith in nearly the same spot. The result was the same as well. Swish.

Missouri jumped out to a 12-3 lead less than four minutes into the game and forced a timeout from Morehead State coach Preston Spradlin. It looked like the Tigers would cruise to a blowout over the Ohio Valley Conference opponent for the second year in a row.

But about three minutes later, Mark Smith picked up his second foul and headed to the bench. Missouri led by 10 points when he left the game. In the next seven minutes, Missouri saw its lead disappear. Head coach Cuonzo Martin briefly put Mark Smith back on the floor to try to spark the offense, but he played just one more minute before taking a seat for the rest of the half.

Without Mark Smith in the game, Missouri’s shooters struggled and the offense bogged down. The Tigers missed 12 three-pointers in a row after Mark Smith’s consecutive makes to start the game. They turned the ball over 10 times in the first half, leading to 13 Morehead State points. With 1:44 left in the half, the Tigers trailed 29-27.

Missouri ultimately finished the half on a 9-0 run thanks in part to two fastbreak layups by freshman forward Kobe Brown. Mark Smith reentered the game and promptly hit a three-pointer to put the Tigers back up by double digits. From there, Missouri out-physicaled the undersized Eagles, winning the rebounding battle 45 to 28 and taking 23 free throws. The Tigers won 70-52.

Mark Smith finished with a season-high 21 points, one shy of his career high. He didn’t do it simply by spotting up from three-point range, either. He finished the game 4-4 on two-point shots and 4-4 on free throws. He also added eight rebounds. Overall, he shot 7-9 from the field.

Martin has long said he would like to see Mark Smith, who shot 45 percent from three-point range last season, drive to the basket more. In the last week, he has emphasized finishing more strongly when he does so. Martin said Mark Smith missed four layups in the team’s overtime loss to Xavier.

“The biggest key, he drove it with power,” Martin said. “In the Xavier game, I thought we missed 13 layups — we counted 13 that we thought that we could have made. He had four of them. Three tough ones. But it’s how he drove. He didn’t go with power, how we teach in practice, and he did that today.”

Mark Smith agreed with his coach’s assessment, saying he made a point to jump straight for the rim and not try to avoid contact or fade away. When he’s able to pair that effectiveness driving the ball with his usual three-point shooting, Dru Smith said, he becomes a nightmare for opponents to guard.

“I think he knows guys are going to be closing out hard because of the reputation he built up last year,” said Dru Smith. “So I think he’s taking advantage of the hard close outs, he’s getting to the rim and he’s making plays.”

Mark Smith represented the good for Missouri. The rest of the roster had its share of struggles, especially shooting the ball. Aside from him, the rest of the team combined to shoot 1-17 from behind the arc, with the lone make coming from Dru Smith. That continued a trend in the early season. After shooting better than 36 percent from deep last season, Missouri has shot just 26.7 percent so far this year.

Martin said some of that has resulted from the NCAA moving the three-point line back during the offseason. But even more so, he took issue with his team’s shot selection Wednesday, especially in the first half. Morehead State went under every ball screen, and after the quick start, Martin believes his players felt like they could take the easy threes instead of trying to work the ball inside.

“For the most part, in the first half, I thought they were easy threes, meaning you settle for that shot as opposed to working,” Martin explained. “I thought we shot too many off the dribble threes in the first half. And the way they were guarding ball screens, they would go under, so of course it’s enticing to want to shoot that. But you have to know who you are, know your strengths, still get downhill and make the next play.”

A couple other areas that have plagued Missouri during Martin’s tenure reared their heads Wednesday as well. The Tigers turned the ball over 17 times and on 24.3 percent of their possessions. Both figures represented the second-highest totals of the season, behind only the loss to Xavier. Missouri didn’t get much from Tilmon, either. The junior entered Wednesday shooting 82 percent from the floor — fourth best nationally — but regressed a bit against Morehead State, making just two of seven field goals. He finished with five points, four rebounds, and five turnovers.

Martin didn’t seem troubled by Tilmon’s performance after the game. It’s not like he was being manhandled by Morehead State’s forwards; two of his missed shots came on open dunks. He took more issue with the turnovers, describing Missouri as “careless” with the ball. Fewer than half, eight, of the giveaways resulted from Morehead State steals.

“I thought we did a poor job of taking care of the ball,” he said. “... (Morehead State is) on the floor, so obviously they had something to do with it. But I think we had a lot to do with it.”

Martin rarely sugarcoats his assessments, and he was blunt Wednesday in saying that the offense didn’t execute well. But he’s not pushing the panic button, either. He wants his perimeter players to continue to shoot, provided they’re taking set shots. He specifically mentioned that he was okay with Torrence Watson's shot selection Wednesday. Watson finished the game scoreless, having missed all six of his shots.

As for the other issues, Martin is happy to work on them after a win. With more than a third of the SEC having fallen to a mid-major opponent during non-conference play, he knows not to take a victory for granted.

It’s always good to learn those lessons after a win,” Martin said.