Tigers Overcome Road Woes

Mizzou gets first conference road win
Ames, IA- Another road game for the Missouri Tigers' mens team.  Another must-win situation.  Yet another collective holding of breath by the Mizzou faithful, as the Tigers enter the game winless away from Columbia in Big 12 Conference play.  Could the Tigers finally gain what has eluded them for the previous five road contests?  They dropped a close one at Tech, losing by two.  They were embarrassed at Colorado and donated 100+ points to Kansas.  Could this game be any different?  It IS Iowa State, after all.  The worst team in the Big 12 this year at 1-10.  Surly we can beat the cellar team....right?

Missouri's Marcus Denmon

We almost found a way to lose.  Our Tiger team that is so dominant at home (average home win of 20+ points) is a completely different team on the road...but, like I always say, "a win is a win, is a win."  Despite jumping out to an early 10-pt lead, the Cyclones kept it respectable.  Mizzou only led by two at the half, 35-33.  The Cyclones even managed to tie it down the stretch at 58.  In the end, however, it was Mizzou finally getting the monkey off their back with a 76-70 victory to improve to 21-6, 7-5.  The Cyclones fall to 14-12, 1-11.

The Tigers' Marcus Denmon netted 25 points to lead all scorers, and the Tigers are now 8-1 when Denmon scores 20+ points.  Missouri managed to avoid foul trouble, as Iowa State only attempted nine free throws.  Laurence Bowers tipped in 16 of his own, and Ricardo Ratliffe added 10.  Kim English and Justin Safford each had 8, respectively.  Michael Dixon was the surprise of the night, as he went 0/7 and 6 points.  Phil Pressey added the remainder of the points, going 1-3 for 3 points.  Steve Moore, Matt Pressey and Ricky Krecklow all remained scoreless with 0.

As a team, the Tigers went 27-55 (49.1%) from the field and a respectable 19-24 (79.2%) from the free throw line.  The 3-point shooting wasn't there tonight, going only 3-13 (23.1%) from behind the paint.

Missouri travels back to Columbia and look to remain undefeated on Norm Stewart Court as they take on Baylor (who gave charity to Iowa State's lone conference win) on February 23rd.  After the Baylor game, Mizzou travels to Manhattan, KS to take on the Wildcats, then to Lincoln, NE for one last time to take on the Big Ten-bound Cornhuskers (March 1st), before returning to Mizzou Arena for the season finale against Kansas on March 5th.