Missouri Tigers Phil Pressey (1) gets past Kansas State Wildcats Jacob Pullen for a layup and two points in the first half at the Mizzou Arena in Columbia, Missouri on January 17, 2011. UPI/Bill Greenblatt

Two big scoring runs, one in each half powered the Missouri Tigers to a 75-59 win over the K-State Wildcats on Monday afternoon at Mizzou Arena. The Tigers were led by freshmen Phil Pressey who carried the team on his shoulders most of the afternoon as MU built a big first half lead.

Mizzou started each half slow, but the Tigers took the lead 14-13 on a Phil Pressey three pointer with 12:26 to play. Pressey had a great first half finishing with 10 points on 4 of 5 shooting, with an assist and a steal in just nine minutes.

MU closed the final 7:30 of the first half on a 17-9 run shooting 50% from the floor to go up 43-28. The Tigers started the 2nd half slow as K-State went on a 7-0 run to start the half and closed the lead to 55-52 with nine minutes to go in the game, but a three from Kim English pushed the lead back to six and Mizzou dominated the game from there outscoring K-State 20-7.

Denmon ended up leading Mizzou with 14 points.  Pressey had 13 and Ricardo Ratliffe, Laurence Bowers and Kim English all had 10.