Kansas Jayhawks Tyrel Reed (R) slaps the basketball from the hands of Missouri Tigers J.T. Tiller during the second half at the Mizzou Arena in Columbia, Missouri on March 6, 2010. Kansas won the game 77-56. UPI/Bill Greenblatt
For the first time in six years at Mizzou Arena, the Missouri Tigers lost on Senior Day falling to rival and second ranked Kansas 77-56 on Saturday.
This wasn’t one of KU’s best games, but they did enough to take care of a Missouri team on a shooting day that head coach Mike Anderson called “one of those days.” Mizzou shot just 34% of the game and only hit 3 of 22 three point attempts.
With the crowd behind them, the Tigers jumped out to a 17-10 lead with 11:36 to go in the first half, but KU bounced back to take the lead at 19-16 with 7:50 to play. The Tigers kept it close, bu twith the scored tied at 24-24 with 4:06 to play, KU finished the half on a 16-0 run and scored the first basket of the second half to go up 42-24.
Missouri Tigers Laurence Bowers (L) and Keith Ramsey tie up Kansas Jayhawks Aldrich Cole during the first half. UPI/Bill Greenblatt
Behind strong defense and a lackluster effort from KU, the Tigers stormed back to cut the lead to 44-40 with just under 13 minutes to play. Then it was time for another big KU run as they outscored the Tiger 22-4 over the next six minutes to open up a lead by as many as 24 with 4:56 to play.
Without Justin Safford in the lineup, Anderson was unable to do much with his rotation of Keith Ramsey, Laurence Bowers, and Steve Moore as they were dominated on the boards 45-28. The Tigers are the number five seed and will Nebraska on Wednesday at 2pm in Kansas City.
Comments from the three seniors…J.T. Tiller, Keith Ramsey and Zaire Taylor
Postgame comments from head coach Mike Anderson