The No. 13 Missouri topped visiting Kansas State 75-59 in a Monday afternoon matchup. The Tigers improve to 16-3, and the Wildcats fall to 13-6 on the year.
Both teams were after the all-important conference win in this one, as each were 1-2 in Big 12 play entering the game. The Tigers improve to .500 in league play (2-2) and rebound from the loss at Texas A&M.
The Tiger backcourt racked up the bulk of Missouri’s scoring in the win, with junior guard Marcus Denmon scoring 14 points and freshman guard Phil Pressey adding 13 with three three-pointers.
Pressey went 3-for-5 from deep, posting another impressive day from distance after his 4-for-4 three-point performance at Texas A&M.
The freshman point guard shared his philosophy on 3-point shooting, one that he shares with the team’s leading scorer.
“It’s just pretty much hard work,” Pressey said. “Marcus sees me in the gym and I see him like every day. I don’t hope it goes in, I expect it to go in. So if I miss one, I keep shooting and if I make it, it’s the same thing.”
Pressey also had a team-high four steals and played 24 minutes, the second most floor time on the team. Coach Mike Anderson is impressed with the youngster’s work on both sides of the ball.
“It’s always nice if your guards can score,” Anderson said. “But Phil had three assists and four steals today, which really helped us to develop our offense. He made crisp passes offensively, and it seemed like he was always nagging their guards and putting pressure on them on defense.”
Pressey led a Tiger bench that produced 27 points, including ten points from junior forward Laurence Bowers. The high point of the double-digit night for Bowers was a one-handed, alley-oop flush he put down on a lob from Pressey in the second half.
Kansas State nearly matched Missouri’s bench production, as well as out rebounding the Tigers and shooting nearly the same percentage from the field. The glaring difference was in the turnover category, where the Wildcats racked up 24 giveaways.
Two Wildcats accounted for half of them, as senior forward Curtis Kelly and freshman guard Will Spradling each had six turnovers. The errant passing and constant pressure from the Tigers led to 12 steals for Missouri to Kansas State’s three.
Kansas State coach Frank Martin was not pleased with his team’s ball control and passing in their visit to Mizzou Arena.
“We had bad turnovers,” Martin said. “It was just lackadaisical travels, forced plays trying to go one-on-one, lazy passes, lazy cuts. You’re going to turn it over a couple of times against Missouri, it’s what they do. But when you have bad turnovers you might as well just put a basket on the scoreboard.”
The Tigers took advantage and built a 15-point lead by halftime, racking up 28 points off of Wildcat turnovers by the final buzzer. Kansas State came back strong after the break, starting the second half on a 7-0 run.
The Wildcats came within 3 points in their second half run, as senior guard Jacob Pullen put up a game-high 16 points. But the Tigers kept them distant, and earned back the big lead back in the final minutes.
Next up for Missouri is another home game as the Tigers will host Iowa State at 8 p.m. on Saturday.
