by Benjamin Herrold
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Basketball can be a game of narrow margins. Sometimes, with the game in the balance, the ball bounces your way, and sometimes it does not.
Saturday was one of those “does not” days for Missouri, which lost 64-63 at LSU.
Kassius Robertson stole an inbounds pass in the final seconds and got up a would-be game winning shot, but it skipped off the rim and over, preserving the win for LSU. Missouri probably had a complaint that Robertson may have been fouled, but it wasn’t called.
Of course, Missouri (18-9, 8-6 in SEC through Sunday) did plenty to contribute to its own demise. The Tigers hung tough and battled, as has usually been the case this season. But the offense largely deserted them down the stretch. A Robertson layup gave Missouri a 58-56 lead with 6:11 to play, but the Tigers scored just five points in those final six minutes, including some brutal missed free throws from usually good free throw shooters. For the game, Missouri shot just 7-for-17 on free throws, a paltry 41.2%. Shooting that poorly on free throws and losing by one is pretty brutal.
Missouri nearly churned out the win with some hot three-point shooting, including Jordan Barnett’s scorching 6-for-8 from three.
Jordan Geist had a great game off the bench, with 7 points and 10 rebounds. Perhaps most crucially, he played 33 minutes without a turnover. Freshman Jeremiah Tilmon had a pretty tough game, but he avoided his usual foul trouble struggles.
LSU (15-11, 6-8 in SEC) made 11 of their 13 free throws and got a marvelous game from freshman guard Tremont Waters, who scored 21 points, including what proved to be the game-winning shot.
It was a day with losses by almost every team at the top of the SEC standings, so the setback didn’t hurt Missouri’s SEC positioning too much. But it was a missed opportunity.
Missouri gets another great opportunity to show what it can do with Saturday’s big-time game. Missouri travels to Kentucky’s massive Rupp Arena, by far the biggest home court in the SEC, to take on the Wildcats (7:15 p.m. on ESPN). Kentucky has a lot of talent, but they’re even younger than usual. The Wildcats had lost four straight before notching a big win over Alabama on Saturday.
Kentucky (18-9, 7-7 in SEC) has great depth, with eight players who average either nine points or five rebounds per game, or both. They also have length, with long arms and range that can cause problems for opposing offenses.
The Tigers have a pretty good defense themselves. Even when the team’s offense has bad stretches, the tight defense can keep them in the game until shots start falling again.
Winning on the road is tough, and “Big Blue Nation should be frenzied for a primetime ESPN game their team needs. But Missouri is a competitive bunch with some good players. Should be a good one Saturday night.