Mizzou Tigers men’s basketball gets blown out at LSU for fifth consecutive loss

Through nearly five years under Cuonzo Martin, the Missouri Tigers had never lost more than four consecutive games.

That changed on Saturday.

The Mizzou men’s basketball team reached another low point in the season with a 75-55 loss to Louisiana State at Pete Maravich Assembly Center. It was MU’s fifth straight defeat, and the team now sits at nine games below .500.

Mizzou (10-19, 4-12 SEC) has yet to beat LSU during Martin’s tenure — and this was by far the worst loss. Saturday night marked Missouri’s 11th defeat by a margin of at least 17 points this season alone. The team has lost seven games by at least 20 points for the first time since the 1965-66 season, back when the program was in the Big Eight— it’s just the third time this has ever happened in school history.

“You’re down eight guys and you’re working as hard as you can work,” Martin said. “Just keep working. Keep practicing, keep working, keep getting better.”

Missouri had another woeful offensive performance, marking its fifth straight game shooting under 41% from the field and scoring under 65 points. Martin’s squad made just 20 of 56 (35.7%) attempts, including 3 of 15 (20%) from three-point range.

Javon Pickett led Mizzou with 14 points, followed by 12 points from Amari Davis and 11 points from Trevon Brazile. Kobe Brown scored two points and didn’t make a single field goal, though he grabbed eight rebounds.

“Of course, we want to go out there and win,” Pickett said. “So it’s just like every game we trying to find ways to just keep progressing, just trying to get those wins. ... Can’t let (the losses) get to you, just gotta keep trying.”

As has often been the case through the second half of this season, Missouri got off to an okay start, but then quickly got into a rut with turnovers and a lengthy scoring drought.

LSU went on a 8-0 run around the halfway point of the first half as Mizzou went without a field goal for well over seven minutes. Former MU guard Xavier Pinson had four points and one assist — a lob to Tari Eason for an emphatic slam — during that stretch.

Missouri entered halftime down 30-24. The game felt far more out of reach than that though, as the team shot 28.6% from the floor and committed 11 turnovers in the half.

Things only got worse in the second half. LSU went on a 15-0 run out of the gates, and Mizzou didn’t score a bucket until nearly five minutes had passed — at which point it was already down 19 points.

“We didn’t guard at all,” Pickett said. “I’m pretty sure they got some steals, and that’s what really got their offense going. But when we got to the half court, we just didn’t guard at all. We let them do whatever they wanted. ... We went out there in the second half flat.”

Here are some key takeaways from the game.

Mizzou stuck in SEC’s basement

With Saturday night’s loss, Missouri is destined to be one of the four worst teams in the SEC standings, which means it’ll have to play on the dreaded first day of the tournament.

Mizzou currently sits at 12th place in the league with a 4-12 record in conference play, only avoiding 13th because it swept a season series with Mississippi.

There are two games left in the regular season. Mizzou plays South Carolina on the road on Tuesday, followed by a home finale against last place Georgia on March 5.

Turnovers remain an issue

Missouri has struggled to take care of the ball all season. The team entered Saturday night’s game averaging 14.0 turnovers per game.

That spelled trouble against LSU, which came into the matchup ranking first in the nation in steals (11.1 per game) and sixth in turnovers forced (18.0) per game.

Mizzou committed 11 turnovers in the first half alone, many of them just from unnecessary mistakes rather than anything LSU did.

By the end of the night, Missouri had turned the ball over 19 times, leading to 25 points for LSU.

Jarron “Boogie” Coleman was responsible for seven of those turnovers himself.

“Coleman has to do a better job of handling the pressure,” Martin said. “I mean, just getting over the top and making the plays. I thought looks were there — you know from the sideline looking — you get the ball, get it over top and make plays. I thought he held on to some of those too long.”

How Missouri fared against its former player

Former Mizzou guard Xavier Pinson has played a key role for LSU since transferring prior to the 2021-22 season.

He entered the contest averaging 10.4 points, 4.6 assists and 2.7 rebounds per game.

Pinson sparked his team’s run in the first half and continued to be a factor on Saturday night. He finished with 10 points, three assists and five turnovers.

“It was a normal game,” Pinson said. “I mean, if anything, I missed being in the black and gold. It was good to see the jerseys, but other than that it was just a normal basketball game.”

Forward Tari Eason led LSU with 18 points, while guard Brandon Murray had 11.

This story was originally published February 26, 2022 at 9:54 PM.

Lila Bromberg

The Kansas City Star

Lila Bromberg covers the Missouri Tigers for the Kansas City Star. She is a graduate of the University of Maryland and was ranked as the best college sports reporter in the country by the Associated Press Sports Editors in 2021. In addition to covering the Terrapins for four years, Bromberg has worked for Sports Illustrated, Yahoo Sports and USA TODAY Sports.