Missouri ends season in Oklahoma

Missouri hopes to prove worth in the Big 12 tournament.

By Nick Forrester

Published March 11, 2008

The Missouri men’s basketball team lost its regular-season finale to the Oklahoma Sooners on Saturday 75-66 in Norman, Okla.

The loss puts Missouri at 6-10 in Big 12 Conference play, good for tenth in the conference, and 16-15 overall. Oklahoma clinched the No. 4 seed and a first-round bye in the Big 12 tournament.

Oklahoma spent the entire first half trying to catch up, Missouri outscoring them on the boards 22-10 and with nine offensive rebounds, Missouri held the lead 34-26 with 3:12 left in the first half. Oklahoma was able to turn things around, ending the first half on a run, and went into the locker room trailing Missouri by only two points.

At the beginning of the second half, Oklahoma took control of the game, quickly taking the lead in addition to out-rebounding Missouri 20-10 throughout the second half.

“It certainly was the tale of two halves,” coach Mike Anderson said. “I thought in the first half, we played some of our better basketball as this season is concerned. I think OU came out emotionally charged, being in the position they are in, but I thought that we matched that. We played defense, attacked the glass, but toward the second half it was just the total opposite. You always talk about momentum plays and such, but our inability to take care of the ball hurt us. People say quickly don’t be in a hurry, well I thought we were quick and in a hurry. That was the difference in the game.”

At the end of the game, Oklahoma took advantage of four straight missed free throws by Missouri, obtaining a lead of 66-59.

MU junior forward DeMarre Carroll answered with a 3-pointer, narrowing the Oklahoma lead to four points, but Missouri wasn’t able to score for nearly three minutes and Oklahoma pulled away.

“I think we shot ourselves in the foot,” Carroll said. “We would get a turnover and comeback and turn it over, or we would get a turnover and come back and do something crazy. It was more us shooting ourselves in the foot. That is something we have to get in control of going to Kansas City” and the Big 12 tournament.

Carroll and MU junior forward Leo Lyons were the only bright spots for Missouri, each scoring 18 points.

As the No. 10 seed in the Big 12 tournament, MU will play No. 7 seed Nebraska in the first-round at 6 p.m.

Thursday evening, the winner advancing to play No. 2 seed Kansas on Friday. Missouri split the season series with Nebraska, losing 66-62 in the first meeting at Missouri, but winning in overtime 86-78 in the second meeting at Nebraska.

“If we can just all come together and play on the same page every night in the tournament, I think we can surprise some people in the tournament,” Carroll said. “We’ve just got to go out there and prove it to the world.”