Inner strength
MU big men rebound from a poor outing.
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BOULDER, Colo. — The Missouri basketball team’s frontcourt took a beating both literally and figuratively during and after the Tigers’ loss to Texas A&M on Wednesday night.
Laurence Bowers was the only member of the four-man rotation to make himself a significant factor under the basket against the more physical Aggies.
But Keith Ramsey, Justin Safford and the suddenly not-so-seldom-used Steve Moore rebounded nicely yesterday in the Tiger’s 84-66 victory over Colorado.
Ramsey had 10 points, seven of which came in the first half. In addition to the offense, Ramsey finished with a team-high seven rebounds, swatted four of the Tigers’ six blocked shots and had two of their 11 steals.
Moore also gave the Tigers some strong inside play in the first half after Safford and Bowers both picked up two fouls in the first five minutes. He blocked a shot, grabbed three rebounds, had an assist and even made a pair of shots in 12 first-half minutes, which as many as he’d played in any Big 12 game this season.
“I’m just glad Coach” Mike Anderson “trusted me to come off the bench and produce, and that’s what I did,” Moore said.
Safford had 10 points and four rebounds as the MU forwards outscored their Colorado counterparts 33-4 and helped the Tigers to a 36-31 rebounding advantage.
ONE THAT GOT AWAY: Nothing CU freshman Alec Burks did yesterday will make Anderson and his staff feel any better about their decision not to offer him a scholarship. Burks, a product of Grandview High School in the Kansas City area, scored a game-high 27 points on 9-for-19 shooting.
“Alec has a chance to play against his home state, so you know he’s going to play well,” Anderson said. “True to form, he did.”
WHO’S NO. 5?: Senior guard J.T. Tiller had to change out of his own No. 4 jersey into an unnamed No. 5 shirt after bleeding all over his uniform barely three minutes into the opening half.
Tiller appeared to catch an elbow to the middle of his face from Colorado forward Marcus Relphorde, who was trying to get open from Tiller in front of the Missouri bench. Tiller went down in a heap on the floor and had to be taken out of the game as his face bled.
“He was hurt pretty good,” Anderson said.
Tiller wound up with four points, a game-high six assists, two rebounds and a pair of steals.
Reach Steve Walentik at 573-815-1788 or e-mail swalentik@columbiatribune.com.
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