MU hoops team sweeps Canada trip
The Kansas City Star
Missouri completed a three-game sweep of basketball exhibition games Monday morning, beating the South Ontario All-Stars 109-92 in Welland, Ontario.
This was the most competitive game of the trip for the Tigers, but at one point Missouri led by 31, 94-63.
So what went wrong down the stretch? Absolutely nothing.
DeMarre Carroll, Leo Lyons and J.T. Tiller played only 8 minutes each in the second half. Coach Mike Anderson mixed and matched combinations, and the seven new Tigers on the roster got plenty of playing time.
“Overall, this was a good trip for all of us,” said Lyons, who scored 20 points Monday. “We’ve only been practicing together for a few days, and you can’t pick this system up that fast.
“Man, I’ve been in this system for three years, and I’m still learning, so I think our new guys are getting some great experience.”
Zaire Taylor, a junior guard who sat out last season after transferring from Delaware, had eight steals Monday.
“I think my defense is further along right now and I try to use that to help us score,” Taylor said. “I didn’t realize I had eight steals, but we were able to turn those turnovers into points and that’s why we scored 109 points against a good team.”
Anderson pretty much saw it the same way.
“This was a beneficial trip for us,” Anderson said. “We saw our young guys get a lot of experience against some different types of teams, and that team today was a good club, a team that knows how to win.
“We put a few different lineups out there today, and we mixed in some of our newcomers with our returners, and you could see it flowed a little better this morning. Again, this was the best test of the tour. That’s a team that has beaten some Division I teams already and they are a little older, a little more mature, so that was a good test for us.”
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