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Carroll, Lyons power Missouri over Oklahoma

Mar 5, 2009 - 6:55 AM COLUMBIA, Missouri (Ticker) -- Missouri continued its great campaign by extending Oklahoma's late-season swoon.

DeMarre Carroll had 15 points and 10 rebounds and Leo Lyons also scored 15 as No. 12 Missouri posted a 73-64 victory over fifth-ranked Oklahoma on Wednesday.

J.T. Tiller added 13 points for the Tigers (25-5, 12-3 Big 12), who bounced back from a 90-65 pounding at Kansas on Sunday.

"It was a very emotional game for our guys," Missouri coach Mike Anderson said about his team playing on 'Senior Day.' "One thing our kids do, they leave it all on the floor. They're going to play hard, they're going to play to win, they're going to play together."

With the win, Missouri moved into a tie for second place in the Big 12 Conference with Oklahoma (26-4, 12-3) - 1 1/2 games behind Kansas (13-1), which was playing at Texas Tech.

It was the third loss in four games for the Sooners, who may be starting to lose their grip on a possible No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

"There's always concern, but we'll figure it out, we're OU," Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel said. "We hit a couple bumps in the road, had that game without Blake (Griffin). We had a tough stretch, down the stretch. We had a tough set of games all in a row. But we'll get better."

Missouri got off to a great start and never let up, keeping Oklahoma at a distance throughout the contest.

The Tigers held a 24-13 lead less than 11 minutes into the game and, after the Sooners trimmed the deficit to five, the home team responded and took a 39-28 advantage into the locker rooms.

"We couldn't get control of the tempo tonight," Capel said. "They turned us over, sped us up. They had control of the game."

After scoring the first six points of the second half, the Sooners went scoreless for over five minutes as the Tigers went on a 10-0 run to take a 49-34 bulge with 12:31 remaining.

Oklahoma cut the deficit to single digits on a number of occasions, but could get no closer than seven as Missouri had an answer each time.

Lyons' 3-pointer made it a 54-43 score and Zaire Taylor and Tiller later made consecutive shots to take a 64-51 advantage with 4:28 to play.

"We know if we do the right thing, we can beat any team in the country," Lyons said.

Blake Griffin had 16 points and 21 rebounds to lead Oklahoma, which committed 21 turnovers and only made 10-of-19 from the foul line. Freshman Willie Warren, the team's second-leading scorer, netted seven on 3-of-11 shooting.

"We didn't come out ready to play," Griffin said. "They jumped on us, they had a lot more energy than we did. They got points off of turnovers, which is what they thrive on."