Marcus Denmon’s 24 points and five three pointers were
career highs. Tiger sophomore forward
Laurence Bowers also dropped 12 points.
The 41 points off the bench were all Missouri needed to take down the
Huskers.
“I thought Marcus (Denmon) came out, (Laurence) Bowers
came out and hit a basket for us and then before you know it our defense kicked
it in gear,” said Missouri Head Coach Mike Anderson after the game.
Nebraska (13-14,
1-11) trailed by just two points at the end of the first half, but things went
downhill quickly after that. Missouri
outscored Nebraska by 13 points in the second half, which was more than enough
for the Tigers to get the win. Senior
forward Ryan Anderson explained his team’s problems in the second half.
“At halftime, you’re winning by five or down by four,
down by one, and we just can’t expect for things to happen (like) it’s just
going to be that way in the second half,” Ryan Anderson said after the game. “You have to go out and make things happen. As a team, as a unit, you have to make things
go your way. You have to make things
happen. It’s not going to fall in your
hands, like here’s the lead, here’s the win. You have to go make it happen.”
Anderson finished the game with 22 points, but just seven
of those came in the crucial second half.
Anderson started the game by hitting three-consecutive three-pointers,
which gave his Huskers a quick 10 point lead.
Anderson’s 22 points ties a season high and his six three-pointers is
one short of his career high of seven.
“I don’t know. I was just trying to help my team the best
that I could,” said Anderson. “They were
finding me, just finding me. If you go back and watch it, most of them were
just penetrating and kicking (out) or setting me a screen.”
Despite a big day for Anderson, the rest of the Huskers
struggled. The next closest to
Anderson’s 22 points was Jorge Brian Diaz, who had nine points. Nebraska scored just 26 points in the entire
second half, and Ryan Anderson led the team in the half with just seven
points. After the game, Doc Sadler
admitted it was obvious that the lack of second half scoring is what hurt his
team.
“The thing that concerned me at halftime is scoring 33
points and being down,” said Sadler. “We’re
not a team that has shown consistently that we’re going to score 70 points a
game. We came out in the second half and
had a couple really good looks early and didn’t get shots.”
The loss for Nebraska is their sixth consecutive, and now
their 11th loss in Big 12 play.
The schedule for Nebraska gets a little bit better, as there are no
teams ranked in the Top 25 left on the schedule. Despite the rough results, Ryan Anderson says
his team still believes in each other, but they just continue to come up short.
“We could play with anybody,” Anderson said. “We have the talent to play with anybody. It
just takes a little bit more than that though.”
Box Score
Post Game Audio
Doc Sadler - Listen to Audio
Ryan Anderson - Listen to Audio