Mizzou follows similar script to shocking result

Missouri had six days to try to put back-to-back disappointing losses, which followed eerily similar scripts, in the rearview. Optimism for the 2019-20 campaign had taken a hit when the Tigers started slow then clawed back, only to watch their opponent pull away late on consecutive nights against Butler and Oklahoma in last week’s Hall of Fame Classic. A home matchup against lowly Charleston Southern, which entered Tuesday ranked No. 313 by KenPom.com, figured to provide a welcome remedy.

Instead, the same story unfolded. Missouri started slow, then found its groove, leading by as many as nine points. But while the Tigers floundered down the stretch, the Buccaneers got hot. As the final seconds ticked away, the Missouri players and the few remaining fans could only watch in stunned silence as Charleston Southern dribbled out the clock and celebrated on the Mizzou Arena floor.

The Tigers, favored by 26 points, fell to the Buccaneers 68-60. Head coach Cuonzo Martin repeatedly called the game one of the toughest of his coaching career. A joyless few weeks for the Missouri revenue sports slid deeper into the depths of despair.

“It was a tough,” Martin said. “One of the games that I don’t know if I’ll ever forget.”

After Missouri fell behind 15-3 to open both games in Kansas City, Martin switched up his starting lineup, swapping Javon Pickett out in favor of Xavier Pinson Tuesday. Martin hoped the move would inject some more speed and energy into the team.

It did not. Missouri didn’t make its first field goal until more than four minutes had passed. Halfway through the first half, the Tigers had shot 1-13 from the field and missed all nine of their three-point attempts. Junior center Jeremiah Tilmon had yet to attempt a field goal. They trailed 12-3.

“We recognized that that’s what happened in Kansas,” Tilmon said of the team’s slow starts. “We talked about that a lot, for that not to happen. But I mean, that happened again, and we were just looking at each other like, we gotta figure it out.”

Eventually, Missouri found a rhythm, and order looked to be restored. Charleston Southern, ranked 323rd out of 353 Division I teams in offensive efficiency and next-to-last nationally, mustered just nine points in the final nine minutes of the half. Missouri, meanwhile, went on an 11-0 run to take a five-point lead into halftime.

But despite having lost five of its six games against Division I competition this season, including a four-game stretch when it lost each by an average of 39 points, Charleston Southern wouldn’t go away. The Buccaneers cut Missouri’s lead to one point early in the second half. After Tilmon finally got going and scored 10 points in a three-minute stretch, Charleston Southern found its shooting stroke. Ty Jones hit an open three out of a timeout. The next trip down the floor, Duncan LeXander, who had missed 11 shots in a row from behind the arc prior to this game, hit a triple of his own.

At that point, Martin started to feel uneasy.

“I felt it, 10 minutes left to go in the second half, it just didn’t feel right,” Martin said. “We just didn’t have the right flow, the right momentum.”

As had been the case in each of its first three losses of the season, Missouri’s offense bogged down during the stretch run. Charleston Southern, meanwhile, found its stroke for the first time all season.

Jones broke a tie with another three with eight minutes remaining in the game. Then, with Charleston Southern leading by two in the final minutes, LeXander hit a three from each corner on consecutive possessions. Travis Anderson iced the victory with a step-back dagger from beyond the arc in the final minute. In all, the Buccaneers made eight of 11 shots from three-point range in the second half.

“It’s amazing how we shot the ball in the second half,” Charleston Southern coach Barclay Radebaugh, still soaked from a locker room water fight celebration with his players, admitted after the game. “I don’t know that we’ve made eight threes all year. But they were good shots.”

Martin noted that, once shots started falling for Charleston Southern, defending them became more difficult, since it necessitated Tilmon extending all the way to the perimeter. (Removing Tilmon from the game wasn’t really an option; the big man scored 15 of Missouri’s 32 points in the second half.) However, Martin and his players ultimately blamed their own execution for Charleston Southern’s hot shooting.

“The two threes in the corner, under out of bounds defense, that shouldn’t happen,” Martin said. “I think Javon gave up two of those. That shouldn’t happen.”

“That’s just up to us, just playing defense,” said Tilmon. “When it comes to clutch moments like that down to the wire, we just gotta be locked in. And that didn’t happen. I just feel like we lost focus a little bit.”

On the other end, Missouri’s season-long shooting woes continued. The Tigers, who entered Tuesday shooting 27 percent from beyond the arc, down nine percent from a season ago, finished the game four of 26 from three-point range. Reserve center Mitchell Smith made both of his attempts; the rest of the team combined to shoot two of 24. Missouri missed both its first nine and final nine outside shots of the game.

Martin said Charleston Southern allowed the Tigers outside looks early in the game as it emphasized containing Tilmon, and his players took the bait and settled for jumpers instead of running the offense through the post. When the shots weren’t falling, the shooters’ confidence waned.

“I thought we settled in the first half from three,” Martin said. “Then I thought a couple guys were hesitant in the second half. … That’s their game plan. See how many threes they can make, let’s try to stop Tilmon from scoring the ball. 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.”

Radebaugh didn’t downplay the significance of the upset after the game. It marked Charleston Southern’s first win over a high-major team since November 2014. He described getting drenched in the locker room and dancing among his players, then said the team would celebrate by going out for milkshakes.

“It’s been a long time since we got milkshakes against a Power Five team,” he said.

Meanwhile, for Missouri, the third straight loss continued a run of misfortune that has included a five-game losing streak for the football program, the ouster of head coach Barry Odom and the news that the NCAA had upheld all of the school's sanctions from an academic misconduct case. Charleston Southern is the lowest-ranked team since KenPom came into existence in 2002 to upset the Tigers.

The players seemed at a loss to explain how the game slipped away. Martin said he’s seen better play from his team during practice, but they have to find a way to summon it down the stretch of close matchups.

“You have to challenge yourself as a basketball player,” he said. “You have to do it in the locker room. You have to compete. I think they do a good job of competing against each other in practice, but you have to do it on the floor. ... You have to do that, and you have to go a little harder than what you’re going.”