Tigers win last regular season home game

By Ryan Huber

Published March 2, 2007

Senior Marcus Watkins made the most of Senior Night as he contributed a career-high 15 points in a 91-82 Tiger victory over visiting Colorado. The win puts MU at the sixth spot in the Big 12, with the ability to finish as high as fifth, and no worse than eighth.

"(It was) a great game," Colorado coach Ricardo Patton said. "Missouri did a good job, particularly in scoring points. We just couldn't run them off the 3-(point) line. Matt Lawrence really burned us the first half, and our defense really hurt us."

Watkins made his seventh career start in 101 games for the Tigers and jumped on the board quickly with the first four Missouri points. Before freshman guard Keon Lawrence came off the bench to sub for him just six minutes into the game, Watkins had already tied his current season game-high in points, shooting a perfect 3-3 from the field.

"What a Senior Night for the young man, Marcus Watkins," coach Mike Anderson said. "I always thought Marcus was a class individual. He was a guy that sat there, hasn't played a whole lot, and tonight was his night. It was very much needed."

But Watkins wasn't the only Tiger lighting it up from the field. Sophomore small forward Matt Lawrence nailed all but one of his seven first-half shots, with five of those shots coming from behind the 3-point line.

Missouri shot an even 10 for 20 from beyond the arc in a first half that saw 33 3-point attempts. With Lawrence's 17 first-half points, the Tigers built a 21-point lead with 3:25 left and headed to the locker room ahead 52-38.

The Buffaloes came out with vengeance to begin the second half. Missouri's 14-point lead shrunk to just three with 16:52 to play, before the Tigers once again looked to Watkins, who hit four points and had a steal in the following two minutes.

"Sometimes you've got to lean on that senior leadership, especially as we get to this part of the season," Anderson said. "He's one of those guys that is a 'tweener' and hasn't played as much as he probably wanted, but at the same time he hasn't said anything."

The Tigers came up with the points when they needed them, and ended the game with a 91-82 victory. The loss for Colorado officially locked the Buffaloes in the 12th spot in the Big 12 standings.

"One thing about a Ricardo Patton coached team is that they never give up," Anderson said after the game. "Those guys, to their credit, scratched and clawed and came back in the second half."

Anderson also mentioned that he finally feels the team is playing the way he has wanted it to.

"I think they are really starting to play the game the way I had envisioned it," he said.

A very happy Watkins played down his individual performance and was thankful he was given the opportunity.

"It was a good game, good we won. I had my career night so I was happy about that, but most importantly, we won," he said.

The Tigers sent the crowd of 9,141 home happy for, NIT-bid pending, the last game at Mizzou Arena this season.

The team travels to College Station, Texas, on Saturday to play No. 7 Texas A&M for the final game of the regular season.