Mizzou overpowers Missouri Western 92-53 in exhibition basketball

With fewer than 6 minutes remaining in the first half, freshman point guard Terrence Phillips went airborne for a steal and clattered into the table across the court from Missouri’s bench.

The crash elicited a mighty roar from the Tigers’ faithful, who dotted Mizzou Arena on Friday to watch a 92-53 exhibition victory against Missouri Western.

“Overall, a good start,” MU coach Kim Anderson said. “I liked the effort. We changed our practices a little bit (after a closed scrimmage Oct. 24 against Creighton) … and I could see it tonight.”

Not long after Phillips’ hustle play, junior guard Wes Clark threaded a crisp pass from the right wing to a cutting Russell Woods, who ran the floor for an easy layup — yet another indicator of the hustle and energy Anderson hopes will come to define the 2015-16 Missouri basketball team.

The Tigers scored 59 points in the second half, shooting 20 of 29 from the floor, and finished with a 23-2 edge in fast-break points in a dominant performance.

“That’s what we’ve been preaching the past three weeks here — playing fast, playing hard and playing together,” Phillips said.

Anderson’s first year on the bench at his alma mater was a 9-23 mess last season.

It would be foolhardy, perhaps borderline delusional, to extrapolate much from whipping a Division II Griffons team that finished 10th in the MIAA last season and lost its leading scorer, but it also was difficult not to be encouraged.

“The one thing that’s hopefully made us better this early is the competition, and that’s something we’ve strived for is to create competition in practice,” Anderson said. “Now, again, we’ve played one exhibition game, so we’ve got a long way to go, but there was a lot of encouraging signs.”

Missouri Western started the game 1 of 13 in the opening 9-plus minutes as Missouri built a 17-2 lead behind six points from freshman guard K.J. Walton.

The Griffons never led and never again got closer than seven points.

Freshman Cullen VanLeer had an eight-point outburst midway through the second half, fueling a 15-0 run that pushed the lead 60-26.

Walton, who finished with a team-high 17 points, including a 4-for-4 performance from long range, heated up again as the Tigers’ lead eventually topped 40 points.

There’s little doubt that this is a revamped Missouri team.

Phillips stuffed the stat sheet with six points, five rebounds, four steals, six assists and only one turnover. MU freshman Kevin Puryear, a Blue Springs South graduate, added five points and seven rebounds.

Woods, a junior forward who transferred from John A. Logan, and his former junior college teammate, junior guard Martavian Payne, combined for 21 points off the bench.

“This is fun,” Phillips said. “I’m not even going to lie to you. That’s the only way I can really put it. This was fun really fun. The bonding was a question we asked all summer, how that was going to be? I think that really showed tonight. We really shared the ball well together, we played well together and defensively we had each other’s back.”

It remains to be seen how the injection of new blood translates into regular-season wins and losses or if it’s enough to boost the Tigers from the SEC basement, but there should be more offensive punch this season, if nothing else.

Missouri, which shot 57.1 percent overall and made 9 of 18 three-pointers, didn’t score more than 79 points in any game last season.

Clark, who is perhaps Missouri’s top returning player, chipped in 10 points, all in the first half. Sophomore Tramaine Isabell scored 16, all in the second half.

Sophomore Jakeenan Gant grabbed a game-best eight boards, but the night belonged to the newcomers.

The Tigers played without sophomore forward D’Angelo Allen and sophomore guard Namon Wright, who were suspended for the game “for a violation of athletic department and team policies,” according to a release from MU Athletics.

Both players, who cheered enthusiastically from the end of the bench, will be available against Wofford when Missouri officially kicks off the season at 8 p.m. next Friday Mizzou Arena.

“I think we addressed all we’re going to address in the release … ,” Anderson said. “Looks like some other guys picked up the slack, though.”

Wright was suspended for two games in February last season and Allen was suspended for a week during last preseason. They were among eight players dismissed or suspended during Kim Anderson’s inaugural season with the Tigers.

This story was originally published November 6, 2015 at 9:25 PM with the headline "Mizzou overpowers Missouri Western 92-53 in exhibition basketball."