With Missouri trailing Mississippi State by two points late in the second half, the Tigers came up with a steal. Missouri had never led in the second half, but a score would allow the Tigers to either tie the game or take a one-point lead with less than two minutes to play.

Point guard Dru Smith, who had at times carried the Tiger offense with 19 points and nine rebounds, got the ball. Smith said his plan was to use a ball screen to drive into the lane. But Mississippi State saw it coming and cut off any driving opportunity. Smith wound up holding the ball as the shot clock ticked into single digits, and with eight seconds left, he attempted a contested 23-footer.

The shot missed. Mississippi State’s Tyson Carter scored on the other end to give the Bulldogs a four-point lead, and Missouri never again had an opportunity to tie the game. The Tigers’ saw their four-game home win streak snapped in a 67-63 defeat.

Smith’s missed three alone didn’t lose the game for Missouri, but it illustrated the shortcomings that doomed the Tigers. Missouri out-rebounded Mississippi State, only turned the ball over eight times and matched the Bulldogs with 13 points from the free throw line, yet the Tigers trailed for more than 30 minutes of game time because they couldn’t hit outside shots. And even after coming back to tie the game in the second half, in head coach Cuonzo Martin’s words, “shot selection got us down the stretch.”

“It was a bad shot,” Smith said when asked about his deep three-pointer. “I shouldn’t have took that shot.”

Missouri is no stranger to three-point shooting struggles. The Tigers entered Saturday shooting 30.4 percent from beyond the arc, which ranked 300th out of 353 Division I teams. The key to the team’s recent surge had been limiting its outside attempts, instead driving to the rim on more possessions. Since the start of SEC play, Missouri is now 0-6 when attempting 25 or more three-pointers, including both games against Mississippi State.

Twenty-nine of the Tigers’ 60 field goal attempts came from behind the three-point arc Saturday. They made just six, including 1-13 in the second half. Xavier Pinson said Mississippi State did a good job clogged the lane to cut off driving opportunities, which meant most of the three-point attempts were open — at least for the first 36 minutes. Mississippi State coach Ben Howland agreed.

“They got some good looks at times from three they didn’t make, which, you know, thank you Lord,” Howland said.

“Open looks, we just gotta make them,” said Pinson. “We’ll keep shooting them every chance we get. ... But about the open shots, we just gotta make them fall.”

Smith and Pinson continued to shoulder the bulk of the offensive workload for Missouri. The duo combined to score 40 points and make all six of the team’s three-pointers. The problem for the Tigers was that no one else could relieve the defensive pressure on them by knocking down shots. Kobe Brown missed four three-pointers, scoring just one point. Javon Pickett missed all three of his attempts, each of which were wide open looks. Mark Smith and Jeremiah Tilmon missed two apiece.

Howland said his team focused its scouting report on stopping Pinson and Dru Smith, and they were willing to allow open looks for players like Pickett.

“We got Pickett to take a couple, and I thought the one in front of their bench late, he kind of hesitated,” Howland said. “He took three shots tonight, they were all threes. That’s perfect for us. Because what is he first and foremost on our scouting report? A driver.”

Still, Martin said he wants Pickett — who played through a back injury for the entire second half — to keep shooting.

“Javon shoots more shots than anybody on the team, so if that shot is open, let it fly,” he said.

What irked Martin more than Pickett’s misses was his team’s shot selection in the final four minutes. Missouri tightened up its defense in the second half and battled back from a deficit that grew as large as 11. The Tigers tied the game with 8:54 to play and twice had it within one possession in the final five minutes. Dru Smith said Martin emphasized shot selection during the team's huddle in the final media timeout.

Right before that timeout, Tilmon had attempted a rare three-pointer and missed. Immediately after, Brown drove baseline and threw up a wild floater that missed everything. A few possessions later came Dru Smith’s deep, contested three-point shot. Martin mentioned all those shots as times when he would like to see his players work for better opportunities. Dru Smith estimated that four of the team’s final 10 possessions ended in ill-advised shots.

“Dru, for example, his shot, he was down two, probably wanted to drive it,” Martin said. “Go ahead and drive that one, because you have an angle to drive it. Drive it, get in there and make a play. ... I thought Kobe, when he went baseline, that shot. But you’re in the game, so it’s not a case of you have a (microphone) in their ear so you can say do this, do that.”

Overall, Martin would like to see his team get to the basket more. But he acknowledged that the Tiger offense is in a bit of a Catch-22: In order to open up more driving lanes for Pinson and Dru Smith, someone has to draw the defense out of the paint by knocking down perimeter shots. So when open looks present themselves, Martin wants his players to continue to shoot them. Whether or not the Tigers make those shots will go a long way in determining the game’s result.

“You always want to attack,” Martin said. “You want to get to the free throw line, you want to be aggressive. But again, if the three-point shot presents itself — like Javon missed a three, he was wide open. You have to shoot that shot. You have to shoot it. And you have to take what they give you.”

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