Missouri men’s basketball coach Mike Anderson preaches defense. His team must have left it behind in Columbia on Monday night. The Tigers had no answer for Kansas, (who leads the nation with a 52% field goal percentage) who shot 61% against Mizzou in handing the Tigers a 103-86 loss on Monday night in Lawrence.
KU’s Morris twins had a big hand in providing the offense. Marcus Morris had 22 points and Markieff Morris added 16 points for the Jayhawks. Even reserve Mario Little provided a big spark scoring 17, in the Jayhawks 12th straight win over Mizzou at Allen Fieldhouse.
#19 Missouri held their own in the first half against #2 KU. The Tigers hit seven of their first nine shots to grab a six point lead, but KU eventually caught them and took a four point halftime lead.
The Tigers cut it to 48-46 out of the break on a dunk from Laurence Bowers who finished with 19 points. However, KU went on an 8-0 run after Marcus Morris hit a jumper, prompting Mike Anderson to take a time out. After a Marcus Denmon bucket cut the lead to 56-48, KU came right back with a three from Tyshawn Taylor making it an 11 point game, KU’s biggest lead at that point with 15:52 to play.
Mizzou kept it in that 8-10 point range until KU banged back to back three pointers to go up 75-60 with 11:31 to play. KU was just too much for the Tigers going 11 of 19 from three point range and they turned the ball over just 11 times.
Phil Pressey had 17 points for the Tigers, but once again, under-utilized Ricardo Ratliffe had 12 points and was a perfect 5 for 5 from the field including two three pointers, but he didn’t get a score from the 8:32 mark of the first half until the 7:13 mark of the second half. The Tigers need to find a way to get him involved in the game more on the offensive side.
The Tigers are now 4-5 in Big 12 play, 0-5 on the road.
