Shorthanded Mizzou falls to Mississippi State

Missouri arrived here with its roster having endured yet another blow, down to just eight available scholarship players after the indefinite suspension of third-string guard Terrence Phillips.

And now, after a 74-62 loss Saturday at Mississippi State, the Tigers’ already-teetering NCAA tournament chances have taken a hit, too.

A game mired with 19 Mizzou turnovers and an inability to make stops inside dropped the Tigers’ record to 13-8 overall and 3-5 in conference play.

This completed their first winless week of the season, and have now lost three straight games. They likely need 10 SEC wins to ensure a bid to the NCAA tournament’s field of 68, which means they must win seven of their final 10 regular-season games.

Will the Tigers get Phillips back for some of those games? Coach Cuonzo Martin said he does not know. The junior guard has been mostly unproductive this year in a limited role, but his absence was still noticeable — especially when walk-on Brett Rau entered the game with more than 10 minutes remaining and the Tigers still threatening.

It was an odd move, but Martin tends to be quick to pull players after egregious errors, and this qualified as one: Cullen VanLeer, who scored 10 points in an increased role, let a Bulldog defender pick the ball from him at the top of the key, leading to a dunk that put Mississippi State up by nine points.

“You’ve got to be able to execute your offense,” Martin said. ‘That type of stuff can’t happen.”

Other than Kassius Robertson, who scored a team high 20 points on 8-of-14 shooting, Mizzou never looked sharp.

Senior forward Jordan Barnett — who said that he wasn’t engaged in a loss last weekend at Texas A&M — made just two of 10 shots, and only had one field-goal attempt in the second half. Facing double teams in the post from the Bulldogs, freshmen forwards Jontay Porter and Jeremiah Tilmon each turned the ball over four times.

Tilmon, who fouled out of three of Mizzou’s first six conference games, played 24 minutes — but to avoid foul trouble, he played timidly. And it cost Missouri.

On the final possession of the first half, Tilmon failed to box out Aric Holman, who tipped the ball in at the buzzer to complete a 5-0 run that tied it at 31-31.

Mississippi State carried that momentum into the second half, when the Bulldogs’ 6-foot-11 forward Abdul Ado scored three of Mississippi State’s first four second-half baskets — all of which were at the rim — to start a 9-2 run. Ado finished with 12 points on 5-of-6 shooting and seven rebounds.

“Because didn’t want to foul, he let guys turn the corner,” Martin said of Tilmon. “He can’t play that way.”

Even when Mizzou found its offensive rhythm — the Tigers shot 54.2 percent in the second half — it failed to thwart Mississippi State’s attack. The Bulldogs converted 18 of 27 field-goal attempts in the second half.

Martin, whose team converted six of 22 three-point attempts, said earlier this week that his team’s offense is not reliable, and that the Tigers can’t lose focus on defense when shots aren’t falling. A few days later, his words didn’t seem to resonate.

“We need a stop,” Robertson said to his teammates as they jogged past half court down six points with about 9 minutes remaining, following a Tilmon layup. But Quinndary Weatherspoon, who led Mississippi State with 20 points, knifed through the lane for a layup seconds later.

Missouri would never trim the lead to fewer than seven points the rest of the way.

“You’ve got to try to win the first two, three, four minutes of each half,” Robertson said. “They had some momentum. A 5-0 run the last second. And they carried it to the second half. We didn’t do a good job stopping it.”

MISSISSIPPI STATE 74, MISSOURI 62

This story was originally published January 27, 2018 at 9:54 PM with the headline "Shorthanded Mizzou falls to Mississippi State."