As they have the past few games, the Missouri Tigers stayed with one of the best teams in the country. But a stretch of about three minutes gave the Tigers’ their ninth SEC loss and sank the team under .500 for the first time since a 1-2 start to the season.

“We keep talking about being able to put 40 minutes together,” Missouri coach Robin Pingeton said. “And I thought that last maybe two and a half minutes of the third, we had some tough possessions defensively. But we regrouped.”

The No. 6 LSU Tigers used a 12-1 run to end the third quarter to build an eventual 71-60 win as the teams played even outside of those three minutes.

“We started making shots,” LSU coach Kim Mulkey said of the run. “Not to take anything away from Missouri, they’ve been in a lot of games lately, take it down to the wire, so we knew they were playing good basketball.”

The pair of Tiger teams were tied at 38 with 4:28 left in the third quarter, then the game went to the third-quarter media timeout with 3:57 left.

Out of the break, Mikaylah Williams drained a 3, three of her 16 points for LSU to go with five assists, then Aneesah Morrow added a putback layup to help power her double-double of 13 points and 14 rebounds to go with four steals.

A De’Myla Brown free throw broke the five-point streak, but LSU poured in the next eight points as the quarter came to a close to make it a 51-39 game going into the fourth quarter.

“It’s the same story every game lately, right?” Pingeton said. “We’re right there, right? So close. But what a great showing by our kids.”

Missouri quickly cut the lead to seven at the start of the fourth quarter when Laniah Randle hit a free throw, Grace Slaughter connected on a transition layup and Randle added a layup of her own to bring the Black & Gold within 51-44.

Slaughter ended with 18 points to lead the home Tigers.

“Just trying to do what the team needs,” Slaughter said. “… Once again, I feel like I play with a great group of teammates that just do a good job of finding me.”

Randle finished with 15 points and three assists.

But LSU quickly extended back to a double-digit lead and never let Missouri back within six, though an Ashton Judd 3 with 3:26 left to play did bring the home Tigers within 62-56.

Judd finished with 17 points and three rebounds.

Missouri, which entered the game as the top 3-point shooting team in the SEC – making 37.9 percent of its attempts from deep, just ahead of Alabama at 37.3 percent in second then there’s a big drop off to Florida at 34.4 percent in third – opened the game just 2-of-12 from deep before finishing the game hitting 4-of-7 to keep the game close.

“We did a much better in the second half of that ball movement,” Pingeton said.

Missouri took an early lead to start the game when a Judd jumper followed by one from Randle made it 4-3 Missouri with 7:00 left in the first quarter.

The home Tigers extended as far as a 13-7 lead with 2:32 left after a couple of free throws from Abbey Schreacke, then led by six again at 15-9 after a Nyah Wilson layup.

LSU cut the lead to 15-11 going to the second quarter, then quickly jumped ahead in the second after a Williams 3 made it 19-17 with 7:38 left before the break.

After shooting just 4-of-14 from the field and 0-of-2 from 3 in the first quarter, LSU connected on 7-of-13 (53.8 percent) overall and 4-of-5 (80 percent) from deep in the second quarter to take a 31-27 lead into halftime.

LSU led the rebounding battle 40-30, with 16 offensive boards that led to a 20-3 advantage in second-chance points.

LSU also led the battle for bench points 21-5.

Missouri shot 21-of-52 (40.4 percent) overall, 6-of-19 (31.6 percent) from 3 and 12-of-19 (63.2 percent) at the free-throw line.

“We’ve got to do a better job at the free-throw line, for sure,” Pingeton said. “We’re leaving too many points out there from the free-throw line and we have the last couple games.”

LSU shot 23-of-59 (39 percent) from the field, 7-of-15 (46.7 percent) from deep and 18-of-24 (75 percent) from the stripe.

Missouri (12-13, 1-9 SEC) has just six games left in the regular season with the next one coming at 3 p.m. Sunday when the Tigers go on the road to take on Texas A&M.

Staffers at the Missouri Capitol were abuzz last month when NBA Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal spent time posing for photographs and shaking hands in the historic House Lounge.

But his presence in the Capitol prompted an obvious question: Why was O’Neal in Jefferson City?

O’Neal is a part-owner of Steady, a company that’s partnering with the Department of Social Services to help verify income for Medicaid, food assistance programs and temporary assistance for needy families.

In a brief interview with St. Louis Public Radio, he said the Steady platform amounts to a “win-win.”

“It helps save the taxpayers some money. It helps get people their benefits and get them real quick,” O’Neal said. “And it helps the administration cut down on costs.”

DSS officials launched the SteadyIQ pilot program several years ago and announced they were rolling out the platform to the general public last month.

Marcel Crudele, chief strategy officer for Steady, said participants provide their income source information — which can be a bank or digital wallet such as PayPal or Venmo. SteadyIQ then compiles the income data into a report that can be sent to state officials, Crudele said,

“So the income verification part is more accurate and much faster for them to do, and that accelerates the ability to make a determination,” Crudele said.

Steady chief commercial officer James Haberlen said the platform should provide a quicker response to applicants about whether they qualify for a program and make it easier for the state to process applications more efficiently.

“The state has a solution that can unify how income verification is done to both help the case worker on the state side be more efficient, but also the clients that are looking to get public benefits as quickly as possible,” Haberlen said.

Michelle Wolf, Department of Social Services’ deputy director of the family support division, said SteadyIQ is preferable to a cumbersome process that requires applicants to either gather screenshots or print out paystubs for state officials.

“It was very labor intensive, not only for the participant or applicant by gathering screenshots or printouts, but it’s also labor intensive for the state agency to take those screenshots or printouts and add them together to calculate a monthly income,” Wolf said. “So it’s very labor intensive and prone to error.”

A broader trend

Kimberly Enard, an associate professor of health management and policy at St. Louis University, sees DSS’ embrace of Steady’s technology as part of a broader trend for state social service agencies.

“I think we’ve seen a lot of improvements and changes over the past decade or so in how people who are applying for these types of benefits are able to do so,” Enard said. “It really hasn’t been that long ago when people actually had to show up in person to do this.”

After the passage of the Affordable Care Act in the early 2010s, Enard said states began to modernize application processes. She added that if artificial intelligence programs continue to evolve and improve, more states could implement similar technologies like SteadyIQ.

“I think it’s going to become more and more common as we leverage technology more to streamline some of these processes,” she said.

Enard said one aspect that states like Missouri should watch closely is how these types of technologies protect an applicant’s data.

“I do think there probably are going to be some people who have some concerns about having this type of technology access their information,” she said.

One particular challenge for Department of Social Services officials is that people who may qualify for Medicaid or SNAP food assistance may not have easy access to smartphones or computers with reliable internet access.

Wolf said that since SteadyIQ is browser based, an applicant can access it at a library or at a relative’s house.

“There is some flexibility on how to use this,” she said.

Wolf said the platform won’t cut someone off benefits if their income goes over the limit for a particular program. For instance: Medicaid has a $34,341-a-year maximum for a family of three.

“This will be used in applications,” Wolf said. “We will explore what other options there are to use this technology in the future. But it’s not about looking to cut anyone off. It’s about getting timely and accurate benefits to everyone who applies and who meets this.”

CLEVELAND, Ohio – A U.S. marshals task force on Wednesday arrested a suspect accused of charges involving a Cleveland murder and a domestic assault in Missouri.

Anthony Conner, 44, was wanted by the Cleveland Division of Police in connection with the murder of Glenn D. Favors, 51, of Cleveland Heights. Conner is also wanted by authorities in Cape Girardeau County, Missouri, for domestic charges.