Post-Game Report: LSU pulls away late, spoils Mizzou Senior Day
Missouri got big contributions from a couple unlikely sources in the first half against LSU. Reserves Drew Buggs and Torrence Watson, who had combined to average 3.2 points per game entering Saturday, scored 15, helping the home Tigers erase an 11-point deficit and enter the locker room with the game tied at 40 points apiece.
At that point, it felt like Missouri was destined to win its final game of the regular season. But behind 29 points from freshman star Cameron Thomas, LSU answered each of Missouri's blows during the second half, then closed the game by scoring the final six points in an 86-80 win. With the loss, Missouri enters postseason play with a record of 15-8, 8-8 in SEC games. The Tigers will be the No. 7 seed in next week's conference tournament.
Here is our report from the game, including what we learned.
* In a physical game that featured 47 total fouls called, the whistles gave and took from both teams throughout the game. But Missouri got a bit of a break when, trailing by four points, Xavier Pinson got a steal. Pinson, who endured a scary injury earlier in the game when he hit his head on one of the folding chairs on LSU's bench, got fouled hard by Mwami Wilkinson. The call not only gave Pinson two free throws, but Missouri the ball afterward. A Mitchell Smith offensive rebound and layup then tied the game at 80 points apiece.
The next few possessions decided the game, and not in Missouri's favor. LSU went inside to center Trendon Watford on the ensuing trip. Watford, who finished the game with 19 points and eight rebounds, drained a floater over Mitchell Smith to give LSU the lead. Missouri didn't call a timeout, but Martin said his players knew he wanted the ball to go inside to Jeremiah Tilmon. Instead, Pinson found himself alone at the free throw line. It appeared as though he left his feet wanting to pass, but upon realizing he was unguarded and Tilmon wasn't open, he threw up a hurried, one-handed shot before returning to the ground. It clanged off the rim.
“We had an option we were looking for," head coach Cuonzo Martin said. "Of course, you don’t want (Pinson) taking that type of shot, but if you got a clean pull-up in the lane. ... But of course, I mean, X would take that shot back if he could.”
Missouri had to foul LSU's Javonte Smart on the other end of the floor, and he made both free throws. Trailing by four with less than 20 seconds to play, Missouri needed a quick score to have a chance. Dru Smith got a relatively clean look from behind the three-point line, but the ball bounced off the front of the rim.
Smith reiterated that, on the couple possessions preceding his three-point attempt, Missouri wanted to get the ball to Tilmon down low. Ultimately, though, the Tigers had open looks, they just couldn't convert.
"We were trying to get the ball to Tilmon, and I mean, they were sending almost three guys at him, and it was hard for him to even make passes out of there, just because they had so many bodies down there," Dru Smith explained. "So I think we need to be ready to shoot with the ball, and we just missed a couple ones down the stretch.”
* It wasn't just late in the game that LSU made it difficult for Missouri to run its offense through Tilmon. Martin said Will Wade's defensive game plan was clear: LSU was going to make sure someone other than Tilmon beat it. Tilmon routinely faced two defenders when he caught the ball around the basket, sometimes three. The strategy worked, as Tilmon only attempted three field goals in 24 minutes.
That led to Missouri attempting a whopping 30 threes, its second-most in a game this season. Coming into the game, that wouldn't have seemed like a wise strategy. LSU entered Saturday ranked 27th nationally in three-point defense but 246th against two-pointers. Missouri, meanwhile, has shot the ball much more successfully from inside the arc than outside it this season. The home Tigers wound up converting nine of their 30 three-point attempts, just a hair below their season average of 31.9 percent.
Martin wasn't necessarily upset with the volume of three-pointers, however. Sophomore forward Kobe Brown said he told his players during the game, if you're open, let it fly.
"You get an open look, you gotta take it, because if you pass it up, we might not get another open look," Brown said. "So open shots, we have to take them, and they didn’t fall as much tonight.”
Instead, Martin was more distraught by his offense's inability to finish around the rim. Missouri finished the game just 11-25 on layup and dunk attempts. Martin mentioned Mark Smith, in particular, who finished the game 3-14 from the field.
"We talk to him about, you know, finish with two feet with power," Martin said of Mark Smith. "Finish off both feet, go up strong, and then if you don’t have it, find the next guy. But he’s coming with those one-leg finishes, that’s hard if you’re not going to dunk the ball. But I thought we had some around the rim, some offensive rebounds didn’t go, that’s part of it.”
* On the defensive end, Missouri couldn't stop LSU's dynamic duo of Thomas and Watford down the stretch. The two combined to score 48 points for the game, including 17 of the team's final 19. Martin went out of his way to acknowledge that some of those buckets were simply two skilled offensive players making tough shots — particularly in the case of Thomas, who splashed a series of step-back or turnaround jumpers in the second half.
"He’s a talented player," Martin said of Thomas. "I think it’s safe to say I won’t see him on the campus any more, and I say that with all due respect. He’s a talented young guy. I mean, he knows how to draw fouls, knows how to score the ball. He’s efficient with it, not like he’s taking wild, off-balance shots. Those shots he took seemed tough, he’s been making them all year."
That said, there were a few things Martin and his players said they would have liked to have seen improve on the defensive end. Dru Smith said Missouri put Thomas on the free throw line too many times. He attempted 12 of LSU's 26 free throws, making 10 of them.
"We just need to do a better job of being disciplined, when he was going up for shots, just making sure he had enough space to go up," Smith said. "We maybe crawled into him too much and when he was going up and just probably bumping him too much."
As for Watford, who scored 14 of his 19 points in the second half, Martin admitted that he presents a tough matchup for opposing defenses. If you switch a smaller defender onto him, he can use his size to score around the rim, as he did a few times Saturday. If you don't switch, he can drive past bigger defenders.
Where Martin would have liked to have seen a better defensive effort was in transition. He felt a few of Watford's baskets came when he beat the player who was supposed to be guarding him down the floor. Martin has harped on transition defense quite a bit lately, saying when Missouri is able to get back and set its defense, it's as good as anyone in the country, but when it doesn't, it gets into trouble.
“I think that there were two baskets late in transition, our fours, one time it was Kobe, one time it was Mitch, be set and ready instead of kind of jogging back in transition," he said. "Get turned around and be ready."
* Two of the bright spots for Missouri were unlikely contributors. Prior to Saturday, Buggs had made just one three-pointer on 14 attempts all season. Watson didn't see the court during Wednesday's win over Florida. The duo each made a pair of threes off the bench during the first half against LSU, with one of Buggs' makes coming when he drew a foul and made the free throw for a four-point play.
For the game, Watson scored nine points, while Buggs tied his Missouri career-high with eight. Martin was encouraged by their performances, saying having that kind of scoring on the bench will help the team as it enters postseason play.
"When Drew Buggs first got here, I felt like he had a good shot," Martin said. "I don’t think he had the confidence in it, one, because he didn’t need it, because he was such a good facilitator at Hawaii. But we need him to take that shot. So it was just a matter of, I think the last three weeks, really spending more time with it. ... And same with Torrence. I mean, Torrence is a talented player. He made shots, he’s a different player. And I hope those guys can continue that, which I think they will.”
* Watching a tie game get away late on Senior Day certainly stung for Missouri, but by the time the team had its postgame ceremony for the seniors and met with reporters via Zoom, players seemed ready to move past the loss. On deck for the Tigers are the two single-elimination tournaments the season has built toward: first the SEC Tournament in Nashville, then the NCAA Tournament in Indianapolis.
“Obviously we would have loved to win this game on Senior Day and everything, but we gotta forget about it," Dru Smith said. "We got a whole new season coming up. We gotta lock in, understand that when we get back to practice on Monday, we’re working toward something again."
Martin said he's not worried about Saturday's loss lingering and impacting Missouri when it tips off the SEC Tournament on Thursday. For one, he said, this has never been a team to dwell on its defeats this season. He also said that he didn't see any issues crop up in the loss that he hasn't already addressed with the team this season.
"There’s always certain guys, particular things that you talk about," Martin said. "So there’s nothing that happened in this game that I hadn’t seen before if a guy struggled. It’s just a matter of being consistent with what you do well.”
ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT: Missouri needs to find a way to get Tilmon going again. Opposing teams have made it tough since Tilmon's hot streak during the first half of conference play, and LSU followed that same blueprint, doing everything it could to deny Tilmon catches around the basket and then sending two or three defenders at him once he caught the ball. But Tilmon is too important to Missouri's offense to attempt just three field goals. He looked bothered by LSU's physicality, fumbling several passes and missing close shots around the rim. He also got into a bit of foul trouble, picking up at least four fouls for the second game in a row, which is a concerning trend entering the postseason. Missouri is now 2-4 this season when Tilmon scores seven points or fewer (including the two games he didn't play) and 13-4 when he scores at least eight.
"We’ve still got to get him the ball, just because that gets other guys open," Dru Smith said of Tilmon. "But we have to do a better job of being available for him, I think, as he’s getting trapped, just making sure that we’re moving into open spaces where he can see us and get us the ball easier.”
STAR OF THE GAME: Brown bounced back from being a non-factor due to foul trouble at Florida. He got the scoring going with an offensive rebound and layup, which set the tone for his performance. Brown finished the game with 11 points and 10 rebounds, the second double-double of his young career. Brown said he was simply trying to make LSU pay for devoting so much defensive attention to Tilmon.
“When he gets doubled, I’m just always honest about diving to the opposite side, or just making yourself available, trying to help relieve him of some pressure," Brown said. "But as far as myself, I just try to get into open spots where he can see me or just take away or set a screen on somebody else to get them open."
WHAT IT MEANS: Missouri virtually assured itself of an at-large berth in the NCAA Tournament by beating Florida, and this loss doesn't really damage the Tigers' resume. It drops them from the five seed to seventh for the SEC Tournament, and is a bit of a missed opportunity to enter the postseason with positive momentum, but a hard-fought loss to a talented opponent like LSU shouldn't be demoralizing, either. Missouri will tip off its first SEC Tournament matchup against 10-seed Georgia at 6 p.m. on Thursday.
QUOTABLE: “Hat’s off to LSU. They made plays. I thought Cam and Watford played really well. I haven’t seen many young guys like Cam in a long time. Good size, scores the ball, aggressive, efficient when he’s attacking, gets to the free throw line. Talented young player. And then I thought the effort was there, we just couldn’t get shots to go. Had some opportunities to finish at the rim, and of course we knew the game plan, they were going to make it tough on Jeremiah Tilmon. He wasn’t going to be the guy to beat them tonight." -- Cuonzo Martin
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