Tigers manage 28-point lead over Chattanooga

The team will play at the O'Reilly Auto Parts Puerto Rico Tip-Off tournament

By Lenny Goldman

Published Nov. 18, 2008

With the Tigers narrowly leading Chattanooga 43-37 at halftime, it appeared that the two teams would continue to slug it out in the second half.

It couldn't have been more of the opposite. Missouri went on to wallop Chattanooga, 103-75.

"Coach, he kept saying that the second half is when we come out lackadaisical," senior forward DeMarre Carroll said. "We need to start beating teams from the jump and beating them in the second half, so we came out with fire because we took it personally."

After losing the opening tip, the Tigers sent a message that they were going to play ferocious defense all evening. Just as Chattanooga gained possession of the tip-off, the Tigers swarmed the ball handler and forced a turnover.

When Chattanooga regained possession for the second time coach Mike Anderson called for a full court man-to-man defense and the Tigers forced another turnover on a ten second violation.

"You get a grade for how hard you're playing defense and a lot of guys took it personally that coach said that nobody's playing defense except J.T. (Tiller)," Carroll said. "We came in with intensity. If we come in with that intensity every game we'll be great in the long run."

Missouri continued to play intense defense and had forced twelve turnovers by halftime. The hard-nosed attack led to offensive production as the Tigers scored 29 points off turnovers.

"It's great. It allows guys like Leo and I to run the floor," Carroll said. "It's great to get steals because it allows us to display our skills like we did and hit jumpers like we did.

The half-court offense, however, didn't produce as well in the first half. The Tigers had a 42.4 field goal percentage and struggled from behind the 3-point line at 25 percent.

"We were so worried about defense that it was like we were getting stops, but now we got to put points on the board," Carroll said. "Coach kept stressing defense, defense, so we weren't too worried about scoring, but we put it all together in the second half."

Carroll and fellow senior forward Leo Lyons were able to use their versatility to help Missouri through a rough first half. Carroll finished the game with 21 points, Lyons with 25, but it wasn't their inside presence that helped the most. They both showed the ability to step out and knock down the mid-range jumper with consistency, which opened up the lane later in the game.

"It's good for us," Carroll said. "We can put a lot of teams in foul trouble by bringing the big men out to shoot jumpers and then being able to attack them. It opens up for the outside jumpers, too."

Senior guard Matt Lawrence was the one with the true hot hand of the night. Lawrence contributed 16 points with four 3-pointers. He started off cold by going one of four from behind the arc in the first half, but then turned it around by shooting three of four from 3-point range in the second half.

"It's great when you have guys like DeMarre and Leo who are dominating inside," Lawrence said. "Teams go in and double them and they look and fire it out to me on the perimeter."

The Tigers will look to carry the momentum of Monday night's win into their first major contest of the season later this week in Puerto Rico. Missouri was scheduled to leave at 4 a.m. to begin preparation for a tough Xavier team in the first round of the O'Reilly Auto Parts Puerto Rico Tip-Off tournament.

"Puerto Rico is a lovely place and everybody wants to go," Lyons said with a smile on his face. "The weather, it's cold here and everybody's thinking about it."