Missouri drops third straight game in 92-58 blowout loss at Auburn

A strong first half for Missouri (10-9, 1-6 SEC) quickly evaporated shortly after halftime as the Tigers dropped their third straight game in a 92-58 loss at Auburn (14-6, 3-4 SEC) on Wednesday.

With Mark Whitehead, the Southeastern Conference head of officiating watching, sophomore Jeremiah Tilmon led Missouri with 15 points and five rebounds in 26 minutes with just one foul. Junior guard Jared Harper led Auburn with 16 points.

“It was simply a tale of two halves,” said MU coach Cuonzo Martin.

Sophomore guard Mark Smith missed his second consecutive game after injuring his ankle in the closing minutes of MU’s loss to Arkansas on Jan. 23. Cuonzo Martin used Smith’s absence to drastically shake up the starting five, starting K.J. Santos and Xavier Pinson while bringing Kevin Puryear, a Blue Springs South graduate, off the bench. Martin said he wanted two ball-handlers on the floor with Auburn’s press, which led to the lineup change.

Auburn, which entered the game leading KenPom rankings in defensive turnover percentage, wasn’t able to have its way with MU’s turnover issues in the first half, partly due to Pinson. The freshman point guard’s speed and flash helped Missouri break the press and get down the floor quicker, which it wasn’t able to do during its collapse against LSU. Pinson had 11 points, four assists and six turnovers. He was one of four MU players in double-figures.

Bruce Pearl’s squad hit its four shots, three of which were from three, before missing 10 consecutive threes in a row, which allowed Mizzou to keep pace with Auburn in the first half. With Auburn star center Austin Wiley out to injury, Tilmon had just one foul in the first half and eight points, most of which came on dunks. Tilmon gave MU its first lead of the night with 8:26 left in the first half after he backed down Auburn junior Anfernee McLemore for a dunk to put MU up 18-17.

Pearl said with Missouri being one of the conference’s beat three-point shooting teams, he feared that doubling MU in the post would open up the three-ball. Missouri shot just 7-for-24 from three for the game.

“We were reluctant to go down and double him,” Pearl said of Tilmon. “We made a choice, they can’t beat us on two but they can beat us from three. We tried not to go down on Puryear or Tilmon too much.”

Watson had 10 points in the first half, his most since Dec. 7 against Oral Roberts, when he had 12 for the game. His free throws late in the first half helped send MU into halftime down 34-31.

Auburn’s three-point shooting troubles became a thing of the past in the second half. A 9-0 run in the second half sparked a 6-for-8 start from behind the arc to open the game into a double-digit lead. Mitchell Smith got Missouri’s deficit down to 10 with a putback off a steal from Geist but Auburn’s fire power was too much for MU.

“The biggest thing in our gameplan was keep them under 29 percent from three,” Martin said. “They had two open threes that changed the game. We couldn’t get into a flow offensively.”

Missouri’s turnover issues returned in the second half, with the Tigers having 12 that led to 21 points for Auburn. Auburn scored 58 points in the second half while shooting 55 percent from three, while MU just scored 58 for the game. For the game, Auburn shot 39 percent from three. Pearl said after the game that he thought all of Auburn’s first-half looks from three were all good shots that simply didn’t go in.

“That’s our only problem,” Tilmon said of turnovers. That’s the only reason we’re going to lose. As long as we’re taking care of the ball we got everything under control. Once we start getting pressured and turning over the ball, everything foes downhill.

Despite getting his first career start for MU, Santos didn’t play much, registering a single rebound in just six minutes of action. Martin has stressed that the power forward position is an X-factor for Missouri because of way he uses it in his offense and for it’s impact on defense. Santos and Puryear combined for 20 minutes of playing time without scoring.

The Tigers’ next game is on Saturday against Vanderbilt. It will be MU’s fourth-annual Rally For Rhyan game. Tipoff is slated for 7:30 p.m. on the SEC Network.

This story was originally published January 30, 2019 at 9:36 PM.