COLUMBIA, Mo. - Missouri started Tuesday's game against Xavier 1-for-7 from the floor and had as many points, three, as turnovers at the 14:31 mark of the first half.
The Tigers responded to that slow start with a 17-0 run in the following three and a half minutes and never let their lead get smaller than six points the rest of the way in a 71-56 win against the Musketeers at Mizzou Arena. It was the best-looking basketball, on offense and defense, the team has played this year.
"I think defense is definitely the foundation of this team, that's what we want to be known for," Missouri senior Kevin Puryear said after the game. "We want to be the best defensive team in the country."
Missouri (7-3) has won four straight games headed into Saturday night's Braggin' Rights game against Illinois in St. Louis, and is allowing an average of 57 points per game during the win streak.
Jeremiah Tilmon scored a career-high 23 points and pulled down 10 rebounds, and Mark Smith and Jordan Geist each scored 13 points in the win. Tilmon even had a steal at half-court and a fast-break that he laid in after jumping from the foul line because he was afraid the next dribble would go off his foot or be taken from him by the trailing defender.
Tilmon said after the game he didn't even notice the Tigers went on a 17-0 run.
"For real? That's what's up," he said. "We just got going. We were just playing. We had a lot of good energy, and we were all playing unselfish. Just made sure we were playing defense and rebounding, that was the most important thing tonight."
Tilmon was 10-of-15 from the field and 3-for-4 at the foul line in 33 minutes, one shy of the career mark. He had two steals and two turnovers, and committed just three fouls, which allowed Missouri coach Cuonzo Martin to use his regular rotations Tuesday.
"Jeremiah Tilmon's an absolute load down there," Xavier coach Travis Steele said. "I thought he controlled the paint the entire game, just his physicality around the rim.
"He's their best player, and he's a guy they can really play through on the low post. He's physical, he's big, and I think a big key for them is he's been in foul trouble a lot, but when he's on the floor he gives them an interior presence that few teams have."
The Tigers shot 45 percent from the floor, were plus-six in rebounding margin, and turned the ball over just 13 times, three fewer than the Musketeers.
And as important as Tilmon's offensive prowess is when he's able to stay on the floor, Missouri would not be 7-3 without the 3-point shooting of its guards, in particular Smith, who is shooting 46.6 percent, and the freshman trio of Torrence Watson, Javon Pickett and Xavier Pinson, who are shooting a combined 35-of-94 (37 percent). The offensive system works hard to generate open looks from beyond the arc, especially corner 3s, but the players still have to knock them down, and so far they're doing exactly that.
"We're a very unselfish team," Smith said. "Nobody cares about getting their points, we were just swinging it."
Guard Quentin Goodin was Xavier's only double-digit scorer with 21, and outside of his 6-for-10 night from the floor, his teammates shot 13-for-39 from the floor and 3-for-14 from 3-point range. Steele said after the game his guards weren't tough enough to keep their drives to the basket in a straight line against Missouri's defenders, something Puryear confirmed afterward was a big focus for the Tigers defensively entering the game.
Missouri has had some close calls and let games get away that it had built big leads in. This was not one of those games. The lead was 29 with 8:47 to play, and Xavier outscored the Tigers 23-9 from that point to the final buzzer.
"I think we still have some areas to improve on," Puryear said, "like finishing games, because that should have been, I think, probably a 25, 30-point win, but turnovers towards the end, missed layups, fouling, all that stuff played a factor. But defensively, I thought this was definitely one of our better games, especially in the first half."
Missouri tips off at 7 p.m. Saturday against Illinois at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis, a rivalry the Illini lead 25-12 and have won in five straight seasons. If the Tigers keep the same starting line-up they have for the first 10 games of the season, the team will start four players from the state of Illinois - Tilmon, Mark Smith, Pickett and Pinson - and three who were at one point either committed to or enrolled at Illinois.