Javon Pickett limped to the sideline midway through the second half, clearly in pain. Pickett grimaced, hard, as the trainers checked out his right ankle while he watched the action on the court.
The junior guard looked on as Mark Smith caught a pass on the right wing and fired away, drilling his third three of the game. Still wincing, Pickett held up his right hand and pointed down — the universal signal for “count it.”
The three halted a 5-0 run for Kentucky, who roared back to make it a game after trailing by 13 at half. The Wildcats put together smaller bursts of scoring like that 5-0 run to keep themselves in it throughout the frame.
Missouri wouldn’t bow to flashbacks of its Jan. 5 loss to Mississippi State, though, and the Tigers held on, 75-70.
“I’m happy our guys didn’t take them for granted,” Martin said. “We knew they were a talented team, a well-coached team and they showed it tonight. It’s a good thing we were at home because they played well.”
Missouri improved to 12-3 on the season, defeating the SEC’s usual powerhouse in a down year. Dru Smith powered the Tigers, piling up 26 points, 12 from the free-throw line on 14 shots.
Smith and a surprisingly efficient three-point shooting Missouri team had the Tigers cruising at halftime. In the first half, the Tigers went seven for 11 from beyond the arc.
“I’m sure they talked about it at the half,” Dru Smith said. “They were giving guys a lot of open looks there in the first half. They were up in us a little bit more.”
The first half was relatively clean, but the second half was a foul-filled slugfest. Martin’s crew picked up five in the first two-and-a-half minutes and before long, Kentucky joined the party with an astounding 16 in the half.
Some fouls were justified, but others — on both sides — ranged from the ticky-tack to the “c’mon, let ‘em play.”
The Tigers ran into foul trouble in the second half, specifically among their forwards. Kobe Brown picked up his fourth at the seven-minute mark, forcing the sophomore to play only 10 minutes on the night.
Jeremiah Tilmon’s third foul came early in the second half, too, and the big man wasn’t as effective as he’d been in past games with all of Kentucky’s defensive attention squarely on him.
With the foul trouble, Missouri had to test its frontcourt depth. Mitchell Smith played 26 minutes and Parker Braun played 12, both season-highs. Braun contributed a three-pointer in the first half and Mitchell Smith led the team with 12 rebounds.
“I think there’s way more that we can get from Mitch and Parker,” Martin said. “No doubt in my mind as a staff, we feel there’s still more, a lot more, in those two guys that we have to get from them.”
Despite the halftime lead, Missouri’s cold offense — the Tigers scored zero points in the first four minutes — and shoddy defense forced Martin to take a timeout just over two minutes into the half.
“He said that we have to get better looks at the basket,” Dru Smith said. “We had a couple questionable, quick ones there to start the second half. But just that we have to get stops. We have to lock in on our assignments. We can’t be losing guys.”
The Tigers got it together after that, ending up with 35 points and much improved free-throw shooting for the rest of the game.
Still, no matter what Missouri did, the Wildcats would hit a shot or two to keep it close and they just would not go away.
“I guess somewhat we’re lucky,” Martin said, laughing. “But we’re experienced enough. We’ve seen a lot of things. We’ve done a good job as of late of taking care of the basketball.”
In the end, Missouri held on. The Tigers have proven they aren’t tied to one way of winning each game — when Tilmon, who had been Missouri’s exclusive source of dominant offense throughout the past few weeks, was held in check, other scorers stepped up.
“I just think they have a passion for each other,” Martin said. “I really think this is a team that could care less who leads in scoring. I think they could care less about that.”
_Edited by Anna Cowden | acowden@themaneater.com_
