Kansas State freshman Dean Wade shoots against Missouri during the Wildcats’ opening game of the CBE Classic on Monday night at the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Mo.
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Chris Collins watched helplessly from the sideline as Northwestern blew most of a 20-point first-half lead against Missouri in the consolation game of the CBE Classic. The Tigers did not have a single player that scored in double digits, and freshman Kevin Puryear, their leading scorer of the season who averages 15 points per game, only scored nine points.
Missouri continued to keep pace with the Wildcats but couldn’t get closer than six until Phillips followed a 3-pointer with a three-point play to get within 60-55. The free throws gave the Wildcats a 58-34 lead with 7:12 left, but at least gave Missourifans a reason to half-heartedly cheer.
Once again Missouri was stymied by a slow start on the offensive end. Northwestern’s run eventually reached 19-2.
The Wildcats’ big run came midway through the half, when Stephen Hurt converted a 3-point play to cap a 12-1 run. “In a way, he’s a little naive and I just hope we can keep him that way for a little while”. You’d love for it to all come together and go right. Kansas State only committed one turnover in the first half…. Northwestern (4-1) came out shooting 3-pointers from the jump, an interesting strategy against a guard-heavy, undersized team, but it was effective.
After the loss to Northern Iowa, UNC can finish off this three game road trip with a win with eyes on a Marcus Paige return and Maryland on December 1st. McIntosh fouled out with about 4 minutes left in the game….
And then the second half happened. The Wildcats were 10 of 23 from beyond the arc.
“I thought our defense was poor”, Anderson said. Missouri will be attempting its own improvement after shooting 30.9 percent in a lackluster 66-42 loss to Kansas State on Monday. “I was proud of these guys for staying with it”.
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Still, the early deficit was too much for the Tigers to overcome, and they lost to a team picked 10th in the Big 10, a team that almost lost to Columbia University in its best win of the still-young season.
