Mizzou Basketball Game Notes

• Game Notes

STORYLINES

• Mizzou is coming off back-to-back SEC victories after edging Ole Miss on Tuesday and knocking off No. 11 Auburn last Saturday. The Tigers have won three of their last four games, averaging 79.2 points per game while shooting 45.6 percent from the field in that span. Mizzou entered this stretch shooting just 40.4 percent and scoring 65.3 points per game.  
• A win on Saturday would give Mizzou three straight victories and four in its last five for the first time in league play since a five-game winning streak in head coach Cuonzo Martin's first season at the helm from Jan. 31 to Feb. 13, 2018. 
• Mizzou kickstarted this hot stretch with an 83-79 overtime win over Arkansas on Feb. 8, as the Tigers won their fourth consecutive home game in their series with the Razorbacks. The two squads have split the season series in three straight seasons with the home team an undefeated 7-0 since 2017. Mizzou is seeking its first win at Bud Walton Arena since Jan. 28, 2014, and just its second win in Fayetteville since Dec. 7, 1991. Mizzou has not completed a season sweep of Arkansas since 2014. 
• It would also give Mizzou its first SEC road win of the 2019-20 campaign and its first since downing Georgia on March 6, 2019 in Athens.
• Mizzou's 317 combined points over its last four games are its most in a four-game stretch during league play since scoring 334 points from Feb. 23 to March 9, 2013. 
• Sophomore Xavier Pinson is leading the charge, exploding for 23.3 points per game over the last four games, including 28 vs. No. 11 Auburn and a career-high 32 points vs. Ole Miss. His 32-point outburst against the Rebels was Mizzou's highest individual scoring performance since Jabari Brown racked up 33 points vs. Kentucky on Feb. 1, 2014. Pinson is just the third Tiger since 2000 to score 60 combined points in a two-game stretch, and the first since Thomas Gardner in 2006. Pinson had reached the 20-point mark just once in his career before the recent four-game explosion.
• Defensively, the Tigers have stifled opponents from 3-point range. Arkansas, LSU, Auburn & Ole Miss made a combined 10 threes over the last four games and none of them made more than three triples. Auburn made 1-of-17 from 3-point range, its worst performance since 2013. Arkansas' three triples on Feb. 8 were its fewest in SEC play. Mizzou ranks 12th nationally and third in the SEC in 3-point defense (28.5 percent), which is a school-record pace since the 3-point line was introduced in 1986.

PINSON

• Since Feb. 8, Xavier Pinson is averaging 23.3 points, 5.0 rebounds and 3.8 assists while shooting 54.9 percent from the field, 50 percent from 3-point range and 85.3 percent from the free throw line. 
• After scoring 28 points vs. No. 11 Auburn, his encore featured a career-high 32-point outburst vs. Ole Miss. The 32 points were the most by a Mizzou player since Jabari Brown in 2014. Only Brown and Pinson have reached that mark since 2010 and Pinson is the first under head coach Cuonzo Martin.
• Pinson has scored 60 points over the last two games, the first Tiger to do so since Thomas Gardner in 2006 and just the fourth Tiger this century (Gardner, Clarence Gilbert & Arthur Johnson).
• Pinson launched this torrid run with a career-high 24 points in Mizzou's win over Arkansas (Feb. 8), including 17 in the second half and overtime. He made a career-high 12 free throws, relentlessly getting to the basket to draw fouls. That marked the most free throws by a Tiger since Geist in 2018.
• Since 2014-15, only Pinson, Kassius Robertson and Geist have posted three 24+ point scoring games in the same season. Pinson accomplished that in just four games.
• Pinson tallied nine points, a career-high seven assists and six boards at No. 25 LSU. He is just the seventh Tiger since 2010 to hit at least all those marks in a game. After posting a negative assist-to-turnover ratio in 2018-19, Pinson is now boasting a +1.1 ratio this season.
• Pinson has led Mizzou in scoring in five of the last six games. Mizzou is 6-2 in Pinson's career when he scores at least 14 points, including 5-0 this season. 
• Pinson has taken 34 trips to the free throw line over the last four games (8.5 per contest). When he takes at least eight free throw attempts, Mizzou is 5-1 this season.

4-GAME STRETCH

• In Mizzou's recent 3-1 stretch (with the lone loss at No. 25 LSU by four), Mizzou is shooting 45.6 percent and scoring nearly 80 points per game. The 317 combined points scored are the most in a four-game stretch since Mizzou's first year in the SEC (2012-13). 
• The Tigers are forcing 12.3 turnovers per game in that stretch and holding opponents to 17.9 percent shooting from deep.
• Four different Tigers are scoring 8.0 points per game or more, including Javon Pickett, Reed Nikko, Dru Smith and Xavier Pinson. 

REBOUNDING THE KEY

• When Mizzou has outrebounded its opponent this season, the Tigers are 9-4. In Mizzou's last matchup with Arkansas, the Tigers grabbed a season-high 52 rebounds - their most in a league game since snagging 55 vs. Iowa State on Jan. 22, 2011.
• Mizzou is averaging 11.9 offensive rebounds per game over the last four games.
• Mizzou has grabbed double-digit offensive rebounds in five of the last six game.