By Vahe Gregorian, St. Louis Post-Dispatch –
KANSAS CITY, MO. — Fifth-ranked Missouri held up its end of the bargain, and then some, by storming past Texas, 81-67, on Friday night at the Sprint Center to reach the Big 12 tournament final.
(PHOTO: Missouri’s Michael Dixon Jr. (11) passes the ball over his shoulder to teammate Marcus Denmon (12) as he is defended by Texas’ J’Covan Brown in second-half action in a Big 12 Tournament semifinal on Friday, March 9, 2012, at the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Missouri. Missouri prevailed, 81-67.)
But the second-seeded Tigers were stood up by Kansas for the dream finale between them when the top-seeded Jayhawks lost, 81-72, to fourth-seeded Baylor earlier Friday — in effect making good on Kansas’ stated intention not to play Missouri any more because of Missouri’s impending departure for the Southeastern Conference.
Not that that put a damper on anything for Mizzou.
Asked if he would have preferred to play Kansas, Missouri coach Frank Haith smiled and said, “That’s a really tough question — no. I don’t care who we play.”
Even if one last matchup with Kansas would have been more enticing for many, Missouri (29-4) still has plenty enough to play for — not the least of which is enhancing its credentials for NCAA Tournament No. 1 seed consideration.
And then there’s the matter of winning the Big 12 tournament in itself, particularly in Mizzou’s last appearance in it.
“Maybe we’ll get accustomed to SEC life when we’re older alumni,” Missouri senior guard Kim English said. “But as of right now, we’re Big 12 guys. And it would feel really good to get that last Big 12 tournament trophy for us.”
Missouri took another step that way by beating the sixth-seeded Longhorns with its typical multi-faceted attack.
Phil Pressey poured in a career-high five 3-pointers and English scored every which way as they put in 23 apiece to pave the way, and Ricardo Ratliffe had 18 points, 14 rebounds and three blocked shots for Missouri (29-4) — all making meaningless the fact that star guard Marcus Denmon was zero for 10.
A night after English scored 27 points against Oklahoma State, Texas simply couldn’t stop him, either, until he took a knee to the thigh with 11 minutes, 54 seconds to go and left the arena floor to be attended to in the locker room by athletic trainer Pat Beckmann.
By then, English had hit all nine field goals he had attempted to spark Mizzou, which tied the 1988-89 team for the second-most wins in school history.
He finished nine of 10, making him 20 of 23 in the Big 12 tournament. He’ll be sore Saturday but no doubt will play against Baylor.
Missouri is 2-0 against the Bears this season, with an 89-88 win in Waco and a 72-57 victory in Columbia.
But fourth-seeded Baylor (27-6) seems to have emerged from its tame phase with impressive wins over Kansas State and KU.
Baylor was Missouri’s foe in 2009 when the Tigers won their only Big 12 tournament championship 73-60, propelling them to an Elite Eight run.
Missouri swept Texas in their last season of regular competition, with Haith now 3-1 overall against mentor Rick Barnes, with whom he exchanged a hug and long greeting as Haith left his portion of the postgame news conference.
Pressey and English stoked the Tigers to an early advantage.
Pressey hit three 3-pointers in the first 8 minutes and later added a fourth on his way to 18 points in the first 20 minutes.
A night after going 11 of 13 from the field, English made all six shots he took in the first half to combine with Pressey for 32 Tigers points as they took a 39-32 lead into the break.
Texas made a dent in the Missouri lead early in the second half, cutting it to 45-41 on a J’Covan Brown bucket.
But Brown went down hard after the play. And stayed down for several minutes.
When play resumed, Mizzou was the aggressor, with English hitting a 3, Ratliffe scoring inside and Denmon getting his only points of the game with two free throws to make it 52-41 Tigers with 14:41 left.
Ratliffe then hit two free throws to give Missouri a 13-point lead. Brown returned and hit a 3, but English came right back with two free throws to make it 56-44, typifying the rest of the game. Texas nibbled away but never could get within single digits again.
