Live Wire Blog

How sweet it is

Posted on March 23, 2009 by Ryan Gavin
Category: 2008-09 Basketball

With victories against Cornell and Marquette this weekend, the Mizzou men’s basketball team advanced to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA tournament.

The Tigers, in their first NCAA tournament since 2003, started as the No. 3 seed in Boise, Idaho. Playing 14-seed Cornell on Friday afternoon, Mizzou thrashed the Big Red 78-59. Leo Lyons led the attack with 23 points and 10 rebounds and often imposed his will on his overmatched opponents.

Sunday afternoon, the Tigers didn’t have things quite so easy. Mizzou built an 11-point first half lead on outstanding team play. True freshman Kim English stood out, scoring 15 points in a torrid 4 1/2 minutes off the bench.

The Golden Eagles weren’t going down easily, and led 78-74 with less than two minutes to play. That’s when Mizzou coach Mike Anderson said he heard a player on the bench say, “We’ve been here before.”

The Tigers held on defense and tied the game at 79, but Marquette had a chance to go back ahead. In a textbook example of how their impeccable conditioning paid off, Mizzou clung to Marquette’s players like Cellophane and forced a shot clock violation with 19 seconds left.

Junior J.T. Tiller took the ball up the court, and taking advantage of a break in the defense, drove to the basket. The shot rimmed out, but Tiller was hammered on his way to the hoop. He was unable to take his two foul shots with 5.5 seconds left, so in came English with a chance to be a hero. English, not one to disappoint, swished them both.

The Mizzou defense brought its patented pressure and, in a break, got the ball back when Marquette’s Lazar Hayward stepped on the baseline on the inbounds pass. Two Leo Lyons free throws later, Mizzou won 83-79.

It was fitting that the last-second win would come at the same arena where the Tigers hearts had been broken nearly 15 years earlier. UCLA’s Tyus Edney took the ball the length of the court in 1995 to beat Mizzou, but Marquette had no such chance this year.

The Tigers now travel to Glendale, Ariz., just outside Phoenix, to take on the second-seeded Memphis Tigers. Memphis narrowly escaped upset in the first round in a 81-70 win against No. 15 Cal State Northridge that was closer than the final score indicated. Memphis left little doubt Saturday, dismantling Maryland 89-70. In the other West regional semifinal, No. 1 UConn plays No. 5 Purdue.

The pair of victories this weekend gives the Tigers a 30-6 record, and the 30 wins are the most in program history. Mizzou gets a chance to set the record even higher on Thursday at 8:37 p.m. Another win would give the Tigers a Saturday game with the time to be decided.

NCAA.com allows users to watch games online, follow scores in real time and updates brackets on the completion of games. Check back on Mizzou Wire and the Live Wire blog for more Mizzou coverage.