Ole Miss senior point guard Breein Tyree was open at the top of the key down three with under 10 seconds to play. His primary defender, Missouri guard Dru Smith, slipped after Tyree stepped on his foot and the All-SEC selection from last season rose up for the game-tying shot.
Tyree’s jumper came up just short as Missouri prevailed 71-68 over Ole Miss, its third win in four games and the first time the Tigers have won consecutive conference games this season.
Missouri guard Xavier Pinson came into Tuesday’s game playing the best basketball of his career, having set a career-high in points in his last two home games, both Tiger wins. Playing against Tyree, the SEC’s second-leading scorer, Pinson cranked it up another level.
Tyree got his: The senior guard finished with 29 points on 8-for-17 shooting. But Tyree’s contributions were outpaced by Pinson’s career-high 32 in just 27 minutes on an efficient 9-for-13 from the field. Most crucially, Pinson led his team to victory, the Tigers’ second straight, as the Pinson-Dru Smith backcourt continued to be a shot in the arm for Missouri’s offense.
“I felt like we had a lot of guys out so Dru and I have to step up big time to make up for those guys who were out because we’re playing extra minutes,” Pinson said. “We’ve just taken the challenge and (are) owning it.”
Pinson picked up right where he left off against Auburn, scoring the first seven points against Ole Miss for the Tigers.
“He played good against us last year,” Mississippi coach Kermit Davis said of Pinson. “I think he had 20 points and six assists. He’s a good player, he’s fast with the ball, plays with a lot of confidence.”
While Pinson started hot, two early fouls, one of which was technical for taunting after he made a layup, limited him to just seven first-half minutes.
The technical didn’t really bother Missouri coach Cuonzo Martin, who noted that he played with a similar swagger during his career at Purdue.
“I ran my mouth a little bit back in the day,” Martin said.
Fouls were again a problem for Missouri, the most foul-prone team in the SEC, which allowed Ole Miss to reach the bonus before the 12-minute mark of the first half.
With Pinson off the floor, the combination of Dru Smith and freshman Parker Braun, who played a career-high 24 minutes, along with the Tigers not letting their opponent make a 3 in the first half for the third straight game, managed to allow the Tigers to bring a 31-27 lead into halftime.
“He can play four or five but with most fives from a physical standpoint, he’ll struggle,” Martin said of Braun. “But he’s a good athlete, he can block shots, but you saw when they ducked him in late in the game, you saw against Austin Wiley (Braun struggled) so he doesn’t have that part. But he has all the other stuff and it’s just a matter of him getting time and him having comfort on the floor just playing basketball.”
Braun finished with six points, seven rebounds, but most crucially, four blocks. His mobility on both sides of the floor caused the Rebels issues and was the key to him being more successful than either of Missouri’s more traditional big men in Reed Nikko and Mitchell Smith.
Then at the start of the second half, after Ole Miss took a 32-31 lead, Pinson got cooking again.
He froze his defender with a crossover and nailed a mid-range jumper. On his next trip down the floor, he swished a 3 from the left wing and on the next a 3 from the corner. Moments later, Pinson again crossed his defender for yet another 3-point play, this time the old fashioned way, capping his own personal 11-0 run. When the Tigers took a 50-41 lead with just under 12 minutes to play in the game, Pinson had 13 second-half points; Mississippi had 14.
“We try to put him in position to help him score the ball because he’s a guy that needs to go north and south and he’s very effective that way,” Martin said about Pinson. “When you have him going east-west with guys pressuring and trapping him, he’s not the same player. So you got to keep him moving and attack and play in space. But he’s also making shots, but that’s the preparation and the work that he’s put in.”
When Pinson is shooting the way he did against the Rebels, going 4-of-4 from behind the arc, the defense seems like it has no chance to stay in front of the shifty guard, who scored 24 of his 32 points in the closing half.
While Pinson was heating up for Missouri, Tyree went the first 9 minutes and 13 seconds of the second half without a shot attempt. But with Missouri ahead 55-45 and threatening to pull away, the Rebels senior guard woke up. Tyree scored eight points in the span of 1:35 as Ole Miss went on a 10-0 run to tie the game at 55 with just under nine minutes to play.
After Ole Miss grabbed a 58-56 lead, Javon Pickett hit arguably the biggest shot of the night, a corner 3 that put the Tigers back ahead for good. Ole Miss kept the game close, even tying it up at one point, but Missouri continued to get to the free-throw line and Pinson and Dru Smith continued to knock down their free throws to seal the victory, though Tyree did get a good look to tie on the last possession.
While Tyree managed to get his points, Missouri held Mississippi guard Devontae Shuler to one point on 0-of-7 shooting, a big factor in the Tigers win.
Asked if the goal is to score 40 points next time out, Pinson laughed, saying “That’s the goal, score as many points as you can as long as we get the win.”
Missouri’s next game is against Arkansas at noon Saturday in Fayetteville, where the Tigers will look to continue their hot streak that started with a home win against the Razorbacks.
“I definitely think that we’re playing our best basketball of the year,” Dru Smith said. “Honestly I’m not sure exactly what changed. I just feel like guys are playing with confidence. They’re playing aggressive and we’re playing good team basketball and team defense.”
