Mizzou Basketball

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Aggies Second-Half Charge Too Much For Tigers
by OSR Staff
Columbia, MO. - For 20 minutes Saturday afternoon in Mizzou Arena, the Missouri Tigers were better than the 18th-ranked Texas A&M Aggies.  Unfortunately for Head Coach Mike Anderson, the Aggies were better in the second half.  Make that much better.

The Tigers played spirited, crisp ball in the first half, and held a five-point lead at halftime, 35-30.  But the Aggies came out of the locker room and hit Mizzou with a lethal 15-0 run to begin the second half, to take a 40-30 lead.  That surge was too much to overcome, as the Aggies took control of the game in the final half to claim their 20th win of the season (20-4 overall, 6-3 in Big 12 Conference play).  With the loss, Mizzou fell to 13-11 and 3-6 on the year.

"It was a tough day at the office," said Anderson.  "I give tribute to A&M, they took the fight to us today.  They really took it to us in the second half.  I always say that if you're going to win one half, it needs to be the second half.  Today, they did that," he said.

"They got us to play their speed too much, they dictated the tempo, and I thought our guys rushed things a little," Anderson said.  "We just seemed to come out real flat (after halftime).  I think we got a little rattled when they made that run," he said.

The run included a scoreless stretch of 5:13 for the Tigers, as they missed five shots, had three turnovers and were whistled for five fouls before J.T. Tiller broke the dry spell with a jumper at the 14:47 mark to make it 40-32 in favor of the Aggies.  Texas A&M responded with two straight buckets, however, and eventually extended the lead to as many as 17 points before the Tigers tried to stage a furious late rally, led primarily by Lyons.

Texas A&M, with four players 6-foot-11 or taller, used its considerable height advantage over Mizzou (whose tallest player is Lyons, at 6-foot-9) to dominate on the boards.  The Aggies held a 42-25 rebounding advantage on the day.  They also were deadly from the foul line, connecting on 21-of-26 free throws (80.8%) in the second half to help secure the win.  The Aggies came into Saturday's game ranking dead last in free throw shooting in the Big 12, making only 62.3% on the season.

The Aggies clamped down on MU long range marksman Matt Lawrence, as Lawrence could not shake free all day long.  He was held scoreless, and managed to get off only one shot on the day in 23 minutes, as Texas A&M constantly had a man in his face, preventing him from getting a shot.

"They obviously did a really good job on Matt today," said Anderson.  "That should present opportunities for other guys though, and we just couldn't make that happen," he added.

Anderson told reporters after Saturday's game that the status of suspended guard Stefhon Hannah has not changed, and that he remains indefinitely suspended.  Hannah returned to Columbia Friday afternoon and met with Columbia police, and was issued a summons for third degree misdemeanor assault for the Jan. 26 incident outside a downtown nightclub that left him with a broken jaw.  Anderson explained when asked that guard Jason Horton, who was charged with the same misdemeanor count, was present to serve his suspension, but that Hannah, who reportedly left Columbia again after meeting with police, has not been present to serve any suspension.  Hannah's status for the remainder of the season is in question, as he will remain on indefinite suspension until further notice.

Up next for the Tigers is a Wednesday night game at Nebraska.  The Tigers will look to exact some revenge on the Huskers, who dealt the Tigers a tough 66-62 loss on Jan. 30th, when Mizzou was playing with only eight players.  Tipoff for the Feb. 13 game is set for 7 p.m.