Gutsy Missouri Tigers erase double-digit basketball deficit, beat LSU in Baton Rouge

Missouri grabbed its first lead with just 1 minute, 37 seconds remaining in the game. LSU had every chance to earn the home upset, which would have culminated a weird Wednesday night of SEC basketball.

Instead, D’Moi Hodge drilled a 3-pointer and MU went up 77-74. LSU never got its lead back as Missouri made its late free throws to earn an 81-76 comeback victory.

The Tigers from Columbia had been down 19 points at one point in the first half and trailed by 13 at halftime. They couldn’t stop LSU’s offense and they struggled mightily on the other end to get buckets.

“The game was won at halftime with the look in our guys’ face, the challenges they set for each other, but also the communication,” Missouri head coach Dennis Gates said after the game. “Which, I’m proud of their communication in that moment. We knew would have to come out and score 50 points. We were three short of that; we scored 47 to be able to come away with the win.”

Once the second half started, though, things got better fast for the Tigers. Missouri began making runs, led on both ends by Hodge, who broke the MU single-season steals record, moving past the 76 that Lynn Hardy had during the 1986-87 season.

Eventually, Missouri tied the game up at 59. Then, after LSU answered and got back in the lead, Sean East got a bucket to tie it back up at 72. Then it was tied at 74. Then Hodge took his go-ahead 3-pointer.

“We’d be in this situation every day in practice,” Hodge said. “We never get rattled in this situation.”

Hodge led the Tigers with 23 points. DeAndre Gholston was the only other MU player in double-figures, with 20 points, while Noah Carter led the team with seven rebounds. East led Missouri with six assists.

A horrible half

Parker Edwards had played just one minute all season. On senior night in Baton Rouge, the Lousiana got the start and immediately made an impact.

Edwards drained a three on the opening possession for LSU. Then he hit another.

Before the MU Tigers knew it, they were playing from behind. At the under-16 timeout in the first half, the Tigers were down 16-5 after Hodge made a three to cut into the LSU lead.

Gates’ squad spent much of the half playing ugly basketball. Missouri turned the ball over too much, struggled on defense and generally dug itself into a hole.

“We just missed open shots, open layups, we missed reads,” Hodge said afterward.

Meanwhile, the Bayou Bengals had a strange stat line from the field. From two-point range, they were 1-of-10 — and just 1-of-7 on layups.

From beyond the arc, LSU made 11 of 15 attempts. Missouri’s zone kept getting toasted from deep, which exacerbated the issues its offense was having.

On that end, only two Tigers were able to get much of anything going. Sure, they had some contributions from Nick Honor and Aidan Shaw, who each hit a three, but if something was happening, it was coming from Hodge and Gholston.

Gholston went 2-for-3 from deep, finishing the half with 12 points, while Hodge went 2-for-5 from three and had 10 points. Carter had four points, third on the Tigers in the first half.

LSU went to the locker room leading 47-34.

League update

Wednesday’s SEC action had major implications for Missouri’s conference tournament seeding. Starting out in Lexington, Kentucky turned in a senior night clunker and Vanderbilt was able to capitalize.

That loss dropped the Wildcats to 11-6 in SEC play. Tennessee holds the same record ahead of a Saturday trip to Auburn.

Kentucky has another difficult game to finish the season, traveling to Arkansas on Saturday. With the win, Vanderbilt moved up to 10-7 in league play and will finish out its regular season with a home matchup against Mississippi State.

Missouri’s now 10-7 in SEC play. The Tigers will finish their regular season on Saturday against Ole Miss at Mizzou Arena.

They still have a chance to be one of the top four teams in the SEC and earn a double bye in the conference tournament. Missouri holds head-to-head victories over Kentucky, Vanderbilt and Tennessee, and was beaten by Auburn.

Saturday’s game is scheduled for a 2:30 p.m. start. It will be aired on the SEC Network.

The Star has partnered with the Columbia Daily Tribune for coverage of Missouri Tigers athletics.