Missouri senior guard Zaire Taylor has earned a reputation for coming up with big shots when his team needs it. Last night he hit three of them. Taylor scored all-six of his points in the final 5:18 of the game and overtime as the Tigers escaped Ames, Iowa with a 69-67 win over the Cyclones.
Taylor tied the game at 61-61 with a runner to force overtime with just :18 seconds left. Then down two with :11 seconds left in OT Taylor tied the game at 67-67, and eventually won the game as time expired with his third and final bucket of the game.
Taylor has now hit game winners this season vs. #10 Kansas State and at Iowa State and also helped beat #16 Texas in Austin and #16 Kansas in Columbia last year.
The game was close the entire night as the game was tied 17 different times and neither team led by more than four points at any time during the game. JT Tiller led the Tigers with 17 points and Marcus Denmon had 16. The Tigers shot just 44% for the game and struggled from the three point line going just 4 of 19.
The win moves Missouri to 22-8 overall and 10-5 in the Big 12 play. The win assured the Tigers a finish of no worse than fifth in the Big 12, but a fourth place finish would be nice to give the Tigers one of the four bye slots in the tournament which starts a week from today.
Missouri will host Kansas on Saturday at Mizzou Arena.