Missouri Tigers Miguel Paul (3) drives the basket for two points against the Nebraska Cornhuskers at the Mizzou Arena in Columbia, Missouri on January 23, 2010. Missouri defeated Nebraska 70-53. UPI/Bill Greenblatt
Missouri’s Miguel Paul had a career high 15 points as he picked up the slack for an otherwise sluggish Tiger basketball team as Mizzou pulls out the 70-53 win over the Nebraska Cornhuskers Saturday in Columbia, MO. For the Tigers, it was their 31st straight win at home while the Huskers fall to 0-4 in the Big 12.
The Huskers hung tight with the Tigers. NU was down 21-13 in the first half, but battled back to take a 24-23 lead on a Sek Henry three pointer with just over three minutes to play. Missouri settled for a lot of outside shots as NU played some scrappy defense in the first half.
Neither team shot the ball very well as both leading scorers for MU and NU were quiet. Ryan Anderson was held to just five points in the first half and Kim English had just six. The Tigers had a 28-26 halftime lead after Anderson got an inbounds pass under the basket and made a tough turnaround jumper as time expired.
In the second half, Missouri turned up the heat defensively as they extended the lead to seven on a couple of occasions at 38-31 and 51-44. Paul put the final dagger in Nebraska when he drilled a three pointer from the top of the key to put the Tigers up by 15, 60-45 with just under four minutes to play.
Henry led Nebraska with 15 points while Brandon Richardson had 11. In addition to Paul’s career game for the Tigers, Justin Safford had 9 points and 11 rebounds as NU had no answer on the boards especially with freshmen Christian Standhardinger sitting for lack of effort during practices this week.
The Tigers are 15-4 and the Cornhuskers are 12-7.