By Hunt Palmer
THE STORY: Missouri’s 19-game SEC losing streak is over.
That’s a bit disingenuous in this era because rosters are overhauled year-over-year, but Missouri hadn’t won an SEC game since beating Ole Miss on March 4 of 2023.
They handled LSU with ease on Tuesday night in Columbia, 83-67.
It was another dreadful start by LSU on both ends. Four of LSU’s first seven possessions resulted in turnovers, and the homestanding Tigers jumped out to a 12-4 lead after six minutes. LSU was completely unable to enter anything resembling a halfcourt set. Missouri hounded every dribble made every pass a challenge.
LSU failed to fight through it and instead continued to turn the ball over. At the break, LSU had 10 more turnovers that resulted in 14 Missouri points.
The other ugly trait of this LSU team, the defensive rebounding, wasn’t any better. Missouri pulled down nine first half offensive rebounds and turned them into 12 points.
And then the free throws. Just as Vanderbilt played right into its strengths on Saturday by turning LSU over and taking care of the ball, Missouri, the nation’s leader in free throw makes, used its brute force to get to the free throw line 13 times in the first half which crippled LSU with foul trouble.
Jordan Sears picked up his second with 9:16 to play in the half. LSU head coach Matt McMahon trusted him to play through it later in the half, but he made a foolish decision to reach in on a dig and pick up his third. Then his frustrations boiled over midway through the second half when he hauled off and shoved Anthony Robinson to the floor for an unnecessary fourth.
Vyctorius Miller also earned a third foul in the first half. At least his was offensive while making a move to the bucket.
It took two guards going to the bench with three first half fouls to get Mike Williams into the game. After a fairly steady freshman season, Williams has been a complete non-factor on a team struggling tremendously with ballhandling.
The Tigers trailed by as many as 19 three different times before halftime.
In the second half, Curtis Givens showed a few bright spots, finding a couple of open teammates for scores and hitting an elbow three.
The rest of the half was unremarkable as LSU hovered 17 to 13 points behind much of the final 20 minutes. It never got closer than 13.
It’s a broken record playing again, but a home game with Vanderbilt and a late Tuesday tip at Missouri in the middle of an ice storm is about as kind a start to SEC play as LSU could have been dealt. The result has been a pair of lopsided defeats and the chill of the realization of what could be coming.
LSU cannot take care of the basketball nor rebound. When Cam Carter and Jordan Sears aren’t scoring, there’s not another option.
McMahon coached up a team that looked absolutely dreadful at times in November and December of last season into a 9-9 league team. He’s going to have to manufacture the same turnaround with this team in a hurry, or this thing will get out of hand.
LSU travels to Oxford to take on Ole Miss Saturday.
THE STATS: Jordan Sears played 11 minutes, shot 1-for-3 from the floor with zero assists, two turnovers and four fouls.
Cam Carter never got going. He finished 5-for-15 from the floor and just 1-of-5 from three-point range. He dished out three assists but committed three turnovers.
LSU started just 6-for-21 from the floor.
Missouri shot 12-for-25 from three for 48 percent.
Missouri won the backboard 37-to-29.
Missouri won the free throw line 21 (their nation-leading average) to 13.
For the second consecutive game, LSU cleaned up the turnovers in the second half. They only had four after halftime.
The damage was done. Missouri finished the game with 20 points off 14 LSU turnovers.
Sears, Daimion Collins, Miller and Corey Chest all picked up four personal fouls.
LSU has allowed 163 points in two SEC games. LSU allowed 168 points in the final three non-conference games combined.
