Missouri rebounds from Kansas debacle with 95-80 rout over Oklahoma State

By R.b. Fallstrom, AP
Saturday, January 30, 2010

Missouri whips Oklahoma State 95-80

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Kim English ended a scoring slump with 20 points and had four of Missouri’s 16 3-pointers, helping the Tigers bounce back from their worst loss of the season by whipping Oklahoma State 95-80 on Saturday.

James Anderson had a season-high 31 points with eight rebounds for Oklahoma State (16-5, 4-3 Big 12), hounded into a season-worst 24 turnovers by Missouri’s all-court pressure. Matt Pilgrim added 21 points, 15 above his average, and added nine rebounds.

Marcus and Michael Dixon also had four 3-pointers apiece for Missouri (16-5, 4-2), which was 17-for-31 from long range and shot 52 percent overall in recovering from an 84-65 loss at Kansas five days earlier.

Laurence Bowers had 16 points and Zaire Taylor 14 points for the Tigers, who have won 32 in a row at home and entered the game with a 29-point average victory margin.

Oklahoma State had won three in a row, including a victory at Kansas State a week earlier, but the issue was settled early in the second half as Missouri bounced back from its season-worst 28 percent shooting performance at Kansas.

Missouri missed only one of 11 shots during an extended 27-9 run that provided a 79-60 cushion with just over eight minutes to go.

English fueled Missouri early, hitting five of his first seven shots and scoring 14 points in the first half. He leads the Tigers with a 14.6-point average, but had been shooting 28 percent in conference play and came off the bench at Kansas after making 14 straight starts.

Oklahoma State exceeded its previous season high of 20 turnovers with nearly 13 minutes to go after a rash of four straight giveaways that helped Missouri score 11 straight points for a 63-51 lead. The mistakes followed an impressive streak by Anderson, who had 14 points in the first 5:02 of the half to shave the Cowboys’ deficit to one.

Anderson scored in double figures for the 35th consecutive game, breaking a tie with Richard Dumas for the second-longest streak in school history and topped his previous best by a point. The junior passed three players — Ivan McFarland, Randy Rutherford and Matt Clark — to move up to sixth on the school career scoring list.

(This version CORRECTS Missouri 95, Oklahoma St. 80. Updates; corrects lede to 17 3-pointers for Missouri.)

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