MU notebook: Jones to join hoops team

First half

•KEY PLAY: Try eight of them. The first eight shots Missouri took were layups or inside shots, and the Tigers hit four of them on the way to an 8-2 lead.

•KEY STAT: Ricardo Ratliffe, Marcus Denmon and Michael Dixon combined to hit 18 of 24 shots on the way to a combined 44 points.

Second half

•KEY PLAY: With 9:40 to play, Dixon threw an alley-oop to Denmon, who grabbed it and flushed a two-handed slam that put Missouri up by 44 points.

•KEY STAT: Dixon has hit 30 of 31 free throws for the season and has boosted his career percentage from the line to a school record .856 mark.

Tight end to join team

Andrew Jones will play his final football game at Missouri in the coming weeks, and then he plans to begin his hoops career as a walk-on.

“I’m on the team now,” Jones, a Smithville High School football and basketball star, said before Friday’s tipoff. “I can play next year, too.”

Jones worked out for the first time with the MU basketball team Wednesday and said he would not suit up for a game until after Missouri’s bowl game.

Jones, a 6-foot-5 senior tight end, was a four-time all-state selection in basketball and scored nearly 2,000 career points. The last MU football player to cross over and play basketball at Missouri was Justin Gage, a 6-4 wide receiver who played basketball at MU in the 2000-01 and 2001-02 seasons.