Associated Press
Nebraska 75, Missouri 60: KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Making fast-paced Missouri play Nebraska's brand of basketball was all it took to create a major upset in the Big 12 tournament.
The 12th-seeded Huskers, who had lost twice already to the fifth-seeded Tigers, played perhaps their best game of the season and shocked Missouri with an early 16-1 spree en route to a 75-60 victory in the opening round on Wednesday.
"We made them play our game," said Brandon Richardson, whose 19 points included a rally-killing four-point play in the second half. "Missouri wants to play a fast-paced style."
The underdog Cornhuskers (15-17), who had won just two of 16 Big 12 regular-season games, outrebounded, outshot and outhustled the team that had easily beaten them twice this year.
After Kim English pulled the Tigers (22-10) to 61-51 with a pair of free throws with 4:01 to play, Richardson canned a long 3-pointer, drew a foul from Zaire Taylor and made the free throw for a four-point play that finally silenced the huge pro-Missouri crowd.
"It's been a tough season," Nebraska coach Doc Sadler said. "But as I've said, from the toughest losses to the few wins that we've had, this basketball team has continued to compete and show great character."
Ryan Anderson had 16 points and nine rebounds for Nebraska and Jorge Brian Diaz had 10, including several easy buckets as the Huskers consistently beat Missouri's pressure defense.
Laurence Bowers had 11 points for Missouri, the defending Big 12 tournament champion.
"It was one of those games where everything went right for them," Missouri coach Mike Anderson said. "They were making shots, even the four-point shot. It seemed like every loose ball they got. And we made our run at them, but for some reason it just didn't take place for us."
Missouri cut the lead to 39-28 at halftime, but Anderson's 3-pointer ignited a 7-0 spree to start the second half for Nebraska. Diaz, a 6-foot-11 center, then got free for two easy buckets, and Missouri called time out trailing by 18.
In the quarterfinals on Thursday, Nebraska will play No. 4 seed Texas A&M, which beat them 64-53 on Jan. 9.
"Today we just made some plays, and we shot the basketball well," Sadler said. "We went into the ballgame wanting to handle their press and not give enough second-shot opportunities."
Nebraska outrebounded Missouri 38-22 and shot 59 percent to just 34 percent for the Tigers.
Appearing to confuse Missouri with a 3-2 zone defense, Nebraska forced one missed jumper after another as Anderson, Diaz and Sek Henry helped fashioned a 16-1 run in the first 10 minutes of the game. Missouri never recovered.
Anderson hit a jumper and then drilled a 3-pointer that made it 15-8. A 3-pointer by Eshaunte Jones a moment later put the Huskers on top 20-9.
Henry, fouled by Steve Moore, capped the surge with a pair of free throws and a 26-9 lead that silenced the huge pro-Missouri crowd.
Missouri got as close as eight points once but Nebraska quickly built the lead back into double digits. J.T. Tiller's 3-pointer was immediately followed by one from Henry. Zaire Taylor's hustle -- batting a ball back into play and letting Missouri keep possession under its own basket -- produced nothing when Taylor then missed a 3-pointer. Nebraska grabbed the rebound, and Richardson converted a short jumper for a 36-24 Nebraska lead.
In the final couple of minutes, two consecutive 3-pointers by Taylor were followed by Tiller's two free throws, slicing the lead to 67-59. But Lance Jeter and Anderson made two foul shots each and choke off the rally.
Tiller had nine points for Missouri. Mike Dixon Jr., a key bench player for the Tigers, collected his third, fourth and fifth fouls in a 45-second span of the second half and went to the bench with eight points.
"As a coach, you try to find somebody who can come in and spark you, and he was that spark that we needed," Anderson said. "Before we could get him out, he got the fifth one. I thought that hurt us."
*
Texas Tech 82, Colorado 67: KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- John Roberson scored 19 points, Nick Okorie added 18 and Texas Tech overcame a sloppy start defensively to open the Big 12 tournament with an 82-67 victory over Colorado on Wednesday.
Texas Tech (17-14) has been plagued by shoddy defense since reaching No. 16 in the polls midway through the season and started off that way against Colorado. The ninth-seeded Red Raiders pulled it together during a big first-half run and held on to end a seven-game losing streak.
Texas Tech assured itself of a winning record to bolster its NIT chances and keep alive its slim NCAA hopes. The Red Raiders move on to face top-ranked Kansas in the quarterfinals Thursday.
Colorado (15-16) beat Texas Tech to end the regular season on a three-game winning streak but became uncharacteristically careless with the ball in the rematch, turning it over 19 times.
Alec Burks had 24 points and 10 rebounds, and Cory Higgins added 18 points for the Buffaloes.
Roberson also had nine assists, five rebounds and four steals, while Brad Reese chipped in 16 points to help Texas Tech to a 30-9 advantage off the bench.
Colorado beat Texas Tech handily in the season finale on Saturday, shooting 58 percent in a 101-90 win in Boulder, Colo., to set up the fifth Big 12 tournament meeting between teams that finished the regular season against each other.
The regular-season loser won in the tournament the previous four meetings, but the trend didn't look like it had any chance of continuing the way Texas Tech opened defensively.
Red Raiders coach Pat Knight compared his team's defense to a spaghetti strainer, and the Red Raiders lived up to that description early.
Texas Tech started the game by allowing an uncontested layup by Marcus Relphorde through the gut of the defense, then another open shot under the basket. Knight called timeout and yelled "That's what we've been working on all week," and the Red Raiders promptly gave up an open 3-pointer to Burks on their next defensive trip.
Colorado took advantage to lead by 10 early, then fumbled it away.
The Big 12's best team at taking care of the ball became suddenly sloppy, and Texas Tech followed with a 19-4 run to go up eight. The Buffaloes had turnovers on five of seven possessions during the spurt and had 11 at halftime -- two below their season average -- to trail by four.
Texas Tech opened the second half with an 8-0 run and kept up the pressure, going up 52-37 after D'walyn Roberts' emphatic block on Higgins started a break that led to a dunk by David Tairu.
Colorado never got closer than nine after that, putting a damper on its postseason hopes.
*
Oklahoma State 81, Oklahoma 67: KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Keiton Page scored 19 of his 24 points in a dominating first half, and Oklahoma State withstood a brief rally in the season's third Bedlam game to beat Oklahoma 81-67 on Wednesday night in the opening round of the Big 12 tournament.
Oklahoma State (22-9) raced to an 18-point lead in the first six minutes, then allowed Oklahoma to creep back in it with a shaky start to the second half. Obi Muonelo kept the Sooners from completing the comeback, scoring 10 of his 15 points after the rally to send the seventh-seeded Cowboys into Thursday's quarterfinals against ninth-ranked Kansas State, the No. 2 seed.
Oklahoma (13-18), seeded 10th, played without leading scorer Willie Warren (ankle) and will miss the postseason a year after reaching the NCAA regional finals.
The Sooners closed out a disappointing year filled with injuries, suspensions and inconsistency with a nine-game losing streak, their longest since dropping 10 in a row in 1963-64. Tommy Mason-Griffin had 22 points and nine assists, and Steven Pledger added 18 points for Oklahoma.
The third Bedlam game came after a split in the regular season.
Oklahoma won in overtime at home with the Big 12 player of the year, OSU's James Anderson, on the bench for most of the second half with a head injury. With Anderson back, the Cowboys won by 21 in the second meeting in Stillwater.
Bedlam III looked like a blowout at the beginning.
Muonelo opened the game with a 3-pointer from the top of the key, and Page followed with two more to make it 9-0. Oklahoma State kept hitting, Oklahoma kept missing, and the Cowboys were quickly up 20-2, an opening blitz capped by Page's third basket from beyond the arc.
Page hit two more 3-pointers in the half, including a contested one from 30 feet that hit the front of the rim and tumbled over, and Oklahoma State made 17 of 29 shots to lead 45-23.
But, this being Bedlam, it wasn't over. Not yet.
Oklahoma tightened defensively, found its rhythm offensively and opened the second half with an 11-0 run. Oklahoma State didn't score in the first 4:44 of the half as the Sooners hit seven of their first nine shots, cutting what seemed like an insurmountable lead to 45-34.
Muonelo ended Oklahoma's hopes.
The senior guard scored eight points in a two-minute span, then hit another jumper and added a pass to a cutting Matt Pilgrim for a layup that put the Cowboys up 65-47.
Oklahoma never got closer.
*
Texas 82, Iowa State 75: KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Pour fiery determination into a talented, experienced player like Damion James, and what do you get?
Texas got 28 points, 16 rebounds and an 82-75 victory over plucky Iowa State Wednesday night in the Big 12's opening round.
The Longhorns all-conference senior was unstoppable, crashing the boards and hitting timely shots every time the Cyclones seemed about to pull even.
"Before the game, I told my teammates, 'Me and Dex (Pittman), all we're promised is two more games. We're not ready to go home,"' said James. "I was really focused, especially on defense. I wasn't going to let my teammates down."
The 6-foot-7 James had three points, three rebounds and an assist during an 11-0 run that turned a one-point lead into a 12-point spread. The sixth-seeded Longhorns (24-8) play third-seeded and No. 21 Baylor, a team that beat them twice during the regular season, in the quarterfinals.
With a little under nine minutes left, LaRon Dendy hit from inside, Chris Colvin drilled a 3-pointer and Marquis Gilstrap nailed two free throws, bringing the Cyclones to within a point at 60-59.
But James responded with a 3-pointer. Gilstrap went back to the line and could have cut the lead to two points, but he missed both foul shots, and Texas got buckets from Dexter Pittman on its next two possessions and again held an eight-point advantage.
"To their credit, I think it was 60-59, we had a good, solid double-team, and Damion James hit a (3-pointer) from the top as we rotated out of it," Iowa State coach Greg McDermott said. "That's what great players are supposed to do. He misses that, and we come down and score, we get the lead and we get the momentum, and maybe it's a different story."
After Iowa State (15-17), the No. 11 seed, cut the lead to six points at 75-69, Jai Lucas hit a free throw for Texas and missed the second attempt. James grabbed the rebound, and Avery Bradley sank a pair of foul shots to put the Longhorns on top 78-69.
Gary Johnson had 15 points and 10 rebounds for Texas.
"We were attacking on offense and defense," said James. "When you're doing that, you're having fun."
The Cyclones, seeking their first Big 12 tournament victory since 2005, got 17 points from Marquis Gilstrap. Craig Brackins had 15, Diante Garrett 14 and Scott Christopherson 10.
"I think some of it was that (James) outworked us," said McDermott. "And there were other times we were right there, and he just went over the top of us. He played tonight like a man on a mission."
After Gilstrap's 3-pointer made it 78-72, Lucas against missed a second foul shot, and James again grabbed the rebound. He then went to the foul line and sank one shot for an 80-72 lead with 50 seconds remaining.
Texas, which started 17-0 and rose to No. 1 in the polls only to fall out of the national rankings altogether, nursed a small lead throughout the first half, never up by more than seven but trailing only briefly by one.
James' 3-pointer put the Longhorns up 25-19, and Pittman later made it 31-25 with a stuff. But Gilstrap's free throw and Brackins' bucket cut the halftime lead to 31-28.
"I really focused on my defense because I have let my team down on defense," said James. "I was just focusing on that, and I was going to let everything else come to me."
James had 10 points and six rebounds in the first half. Texas hit only 4 of 16 3-point attempts, and James made three of them. He also was 7 for 8 from the line.
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