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Mizzou ends regular season with rout of Red Raiders

Mar 4, 2012 - 3:54 AM Lubbock, TX (Sports Network) - Kim English scored 20 points as No. 7 Missouri used a big second half to take an 81-59 win over Texas Tech in the regular- season finale for both schools.

Marcus Denmon scored 17 points, Matt Pressey added 14 points and Ricardo Ratliffe contributed 13 points and 15 rebounds for the Tigers (27-4, 14-4 Big 12), who will be seeded second in the upcoming Big 12 Tournament.

"Big win for us, in terms of just finishing up regular season, on the positive side going into conference tournament I thought first half we weren't playing really well defensively and I thought in the second half that was the difference, us being able to get stops and executing a lot better on the offensive end," said Missouri head coach Frank Haith.

Jaye Crockett had 17 points and eight rebounds off the bench for the Red Raiders (8-22, 1-17), who lost their final six games of the regular season. Ty Nurse added 12 points in a losing effort.

"It was tough loss, Missouri made 12 out of 18 three-pointers in the second half and I've never seen anything like that," said Texas Tech head coach Billy Gillispie. "I thought we were in a great position at half time, we should've really been leading the game but we gave up two free throw violations and two out of bounds plays where they laid it up or we would've been leading at half. Then they come out and we didn't guard the ball well and they made a bunch of three's and we just could never recover."

The Tigers' largest lead of the first half was eight points when English put in a layup about nine minutes in for a 17-9 advantage.

The Red Raiders, though, rallied to keep the game close and Jordan Tolbert's jumper with just over four minutes to play cut the deficit to 23-22.

Missouri eventually took a 32-28 lead into the break, while Texas Tech stayed close through the first several minutes of the second half, but Phil Pressey's three-ball, his only points of the game, sparked a 14-2 run that Denmon capped with a three for a 58-40 advantage with nine minutes left.

Tolbert hit a layup to stop the bleeding and Luke Adams followed with a three to make it a 13-point game, but Dixon answered with a three-pointer.

Consecutive buckets later in the game from Crockett cut the Red Raiders' deficit to 12, 71-59, but that was with just over two minutes to play and that was the final points the team scored.

Game Notes

Missouri has won 16 of the 23 games against Texas Tech...Phil Pressey also had seven assists...Missouri held a 30-23 advantage on the glass...Both teams shot well as Texas Tech made 54.8 percent of its shots while Missouri made 50.9 percent of its attempts. However, the Tigers made 16 three-pointers on 26 attempts, while the Red Raiders shot just seven long balls, making four.