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COLUMBIA, Mo. — Entering halftime trailing California by 16 points, Missouri men’s basketball was in the kind of game where it was about to learn something.

The Tigers had ended the first half of Tuesday’s Southeastern Conference-Atlantic Coast Challenge game about as poorly as a team can: by giving up a 17-0 run to the visiting Golden Bears. A competitive back-and-forth threatened to yield to a blowout.

In the locker room and down 51-35, coach Dennis Gates didn’t say much. Mizzou players did.

“I would love to take all the credit, and sometimes head coaches sit here and take all the credit,� Gates said. “I credit our players. They challenged themselves. They knew what we had to do.�

At a base level, the Tigers needed a run to start the second half. They got one, outscoring Cal 34-13 during the first 10 minutes of the second half, flipping the deficit into a lead. Missouri held on to win 98-93, moving to 7-1 on the season.

The MU team that took to the floor in the second half seemed the polar opposite of the one that had been bleeding points just a little bit earlier.

“They came out with much more energy and tenacity than us,� Cal coach Mark Madsen said. “They got every loose ball. They got us on our heels. We had some untimely turnovers that they converted into layups in the second half. They also ran down our throat after a couple of made baskets.�

Stylistically, Missouri deviated strongly from how it has played under Gates. The Tigers finished with just nine 3-pointers attempted, the second-fewest attempted from beyond the arc during his tenure in Columbia. MU tried only eight once against South Carolina last season.

With just three 3s tried — and only one made — in a 63-point second half, Mizzou relied almost exclusively on looks around the rim and generating free throws. That came back to one tweak that Gates did make during halftime.

“The one thing I did do was simplify offensively and just go right into high ball screens,� he said.

In Missouri’s previous seven games, the Tigers had seen 50 pick-and-roll possessions end with the ball handler recording a shot, foul or turnover. On Tuesday, they had 38, according to Synergy tracking data — more than double the most logged in any other game this season.

Two key factors helped MU pick and roll so merrily.

Second-year point guard Anthony Robinson II continued his breakout season by setting a new career high in points with 29 on efficient shooting — 8 for 11 from the field, 13 for 15 at the charity stripe. He also notched six assists, two steals and 11 fouls drawn across both ends of the floor.

Robinson was, in many ways, Mizzou’s engine. The first-half collapse aligned with him coming out of the game due to some early foul trouble.

“We just couldn’t play as aggressive as we wanted to,� Gates said. “Obviously, it just showed how much we miss Ant out there on the court.�

And Robinson had seen something with Cal’s ball screen coverage on film that he wanted to exploit.

“I knew they were going to be in drop coverage, so you know that area is going to be open,� the point guard said.

With defenders sagging toward the rim as he dribbled past screens, the mid-range opened up for Robinson. He scored Missouri’s first nine points of the game, thanks in part to three middy jumpers bagged early on.

The other part of MU’s pick-and-roll success was, well, the other part of the play: the screens set by centers Josh Gray and Peyton Marshall.

“I thought those guys set some great ball screens for Ant,� Gates said. “It’s one thing for Ant to be able to do those things. He doesn’t do them without Josh and Peyton.�

“Shoutout to Peyton and Josh,� Robinson added. “They set great screens and allowed me to see the floor better. My guy was in drop, so I’m just reading the game and it was just all coming together.�

Marshall played 14 minutes, tied for the most the freshman has played in a game this season. He only appeared in the second half, posting six points, three rebounds, two steals and one assist. MU outscored Cal by 11 with Marshall on the floor.

His strength showed in the low post, where Marshall — listed at 7 feet tall and 300 pounds — played enough bully ball to fight through help defenders and heavy contact.

“High school, I feel like any sign of physicality or aggression, they would penalize my size — like, ‘Oh, you too big to be hitting on those kids like that,’� Marshall said. “Whereas now, it’s like everyone is the same size. It’s normal. You got to tell them, ‘Get in the weight room.’ You can’t penalize somebody for being strong no more.�

The Tigers got 54 points out of pick-and-roll plays compared with just 24 for the Golden Bears.

The bigger-picture implication of Mizzou’s ball-screen success: MU leads the nation with 1.163 points per possession on pick-and-roll possessions that end with the ballhandler.

Sitting 10th on that list is No. 1 Kansas, which comes to town for the Border War at noon Sunday.