The Missouri Tigers gave head coach Mike Anderson quite a 50th birthday present, a 50+ point win as the Tigers took care of Fairleigh-Dickinson 87-36 Saturday night at Mizzou Arena.
Laurence Bowers who scored 12 pints said, “We don’t want to be homeboys,” referring to playing well at home and not on the road. However, Mizzou got off to a great start thanks to Kim English and never looked back in this one.
English scored 11 of the Tigers first 15 points. He was 4 of 8 including 3 of 6 on three pointers in that stretch, but had to sit with two fouls. The Tigers built a 30-10 lead with less than nine minutes in the first half when FDU went on an 8-0 run to cut the lead to 30-18. English and JT Tiller came back in the game and hit back to back three’s, plus another layup by Tiller put the lead right back to 20 at 38-18 with less than five minutes to play.
The Knights would get one more basket before the half and that would be it for awhile. Up 45-20 at the break, Mizzou kept FDU off the scoreboard for the first 8:51 of the second half using a 35-2 run to open up a 65-22 lead while keeping the Knights off the scoreboard for nearly 15 minutes. The record for fewest points in a half is 13 and for awhile it looked like that record would be shattered.
English led the Tigers with 20 points and FDU was held to 21% shooting including just 3 of 22 on three point tries. With finals coming up, Mizzou is off until next Saturday when they host Arkansas-Pine Bluff. After the game, Zaire Taylor was asked if the players gave Coach Anderson anything else for his birthday besides the big win and Taylor smiled and said, “If it’s illegal for him (Coach Anderson) to give us gift, then…” Great way to end a great night.
Listen to Anderson’s post game comments.
