Tigers conclude exhibition play with victory

With exhibition play over, the men's basketball team looks to its freshman.

By Ross Taylor

Published Nov. 13, 2008

The Missouri men's basketball team completed its exhibition season with an 87-58 win over Missouri Southern State on Tuesday at Mizzou Arena.

Although coach Mike Anderson praised his team after the game, 24 Missouri turnovers caught his eye.

"We did a lot of good things, but the turnover department was too many," Anderson said. "Hopefully, it's something we'll rectify."

Missouri (2-0 exhibition) didn't wait long to get its offense humming against Missouri Southern (0-2). The Tigers scored the game's first nine points in a variety of ways.

Getting preseason All-Big 12 honorable mention recipient Leo Lyons involved? Check. Lyons hit an open 15-footer to open the scoring.

Testing the newcomers? Check. Junior transfer Zaire Taylor spun past a defender at the 3-point arc and hit a pull-up jumper from the free throw line.

Fixing poor free-throw shooting? Check. Lyons sank two free throws to put Missouri up 6-0.

Missouri shot 70 percent from the free-throw line after shooting only 58 percent of free throws in an exhibition win over Lincoln last week. Several players laughed when asked if they got an earful about their free-throw shooting after the Lincoln game.

"If we didn't hit a certain percentage, we'd better get to the line and start running," Carroll said of practices since the Lincoln game. "He put a lot of pressure on us. He told us we're going to make free throws. We're too good of a shooting team not to shoot at least 77 (percent)."

But the oddest offensive production of all came a short time later. With Lyons stealing the show early, senior forward DeMarre Carroll got into the action by draining a 3-pointer after Taylor beat the full-court press. Carroll made three 3-pointers for the entire 2007-2008 season.

"Me and Leo work on (3-pointers) every day," Caroll said. "Coach told us, 'If you don't hit it in practice, you can't put it in the game.' Hopefully I can add that to my game."

Thirty-five combined points from Lyons and Carroll highlighted the duo's importance to the offense. But with so much youth on the bench at forward, Missouri can't afford to have either in foul trouble.

Lyons picked up his fourth foul less than a minute into the second half. In the Black and Gold Game in late October, Lyons picked up four fouls in a matter of 13 minutes.

However, the contributions of Lyons and Carroll overshadowed a very solid evening from guard J.T. Tiller. Tiller finished with seven points, five assists and, most importantly, no turnovers, a feat for a player Anderson said "goes 200 mph."

"If you look at J.T., it's not about scoring for him. It's about winning, and I love those types of guys," Anderson said. "There's going to be some nights where he has some major moments scoring and all that, but if you look at his stat line, to me, that's a blue collar kind of guy."

Anderson also said Tiller was unselfish.

"Even at the end, he had a big smile on his face," Anderson said. "I was going to put him back in and he said 'No, coach, let those little guys play.' That's a team player, that's a team guy."

Missouri led Missouri Southern by 15 at halftime, but really put the game away with a 12-2 run to open the second half.

One of the highlights of the second half didn't even officially count. Junior transfer Keith Ramsey energized the home crowd of 4,304 by posterizing a Missouri Southern defender with a one-handed dunk.

The officials called a charge, negating the basket. The Mizzou Arena scoreboard cut to a shot of Anderson laughing, shaking his head and clapping.

Not to be outdone though, freshman forward Laurence Bowers scored his first points by finishing an alley-oop pass from Miguel Paul.

With the exhibition season completed, Missouri's attention now turns to the season opener against Prairie View A&M on Saturday. After the game, Anderson was asked if his team was ready for the regular season.

"We have no choice," Anderson said. "It's time to go to work."