8B the university daily kansan
sports
monday, march 15, 2004
Third victory over Tigers
By Ryan Greene
rgreene@kansan.com
Kansan sportwriter
DALLAS-With 8:45 remaining in the game, the Kansas fans in attendance began chanting N-I-T.
At that point, Kansas was wrapping up a lethal 24-4 run en route to its 94-69 blowout victory over Missouri in the Big 12 Tournament quarterfinals.
Eric Braem/Kansan
Kansas junior forward Wayne Simien fed the ball over the Missouri defense to freshman center David Padgett during first-half action Friday in Dallas. Simien tied his career high in field goals with 12, also tying the record for the most scored by a Jawhawk in the Big 12 Conference Tournament.
In the process, the Jayhawks improved their chances of opening next week's NCAA Tournament in Kansas City, Mo., and sent the Tigers home early and most likely to a berth in the National Invitational Tournament (NIT).
"It was just defense," junior guard Keith Langford said. "Everybody didn't let their man score individually. When you've got that mentality, it makes the team defense that much better."
Kansas' 94 points was a season-high and makes the team 20-0 this year when scoring more than 70 points.
The team also became the first team in Kansas history to defeat Missouri three times in one season. The Jayhawks have now taken five of six contests from their Border War rivals the past two seasons.
Missouri began the game just as hot offensively as it was in the last meeting between the two teams a week ago.
While the Jayhawks were cold from the field, the Tigers opened up an early 24-12 lead. At that point, Kansas junior forward Wayne Simien took over, scoring 14 points in the final nine minutes of the first half and giving the Jayhawks a 35-33 lead at the break.
Kansas and Missouri were neck-and-neck for the next six minutes, until the Jayhawks unleashed the 24-4 run. Simien and senior forward Jeff Graves combined for 12 of those 24 points while containing Missouri's Arthur Johnson on the defensive end.
Simien recorded a career-high 31 points to go along with 11 rebounds, and Graves' 14 points were the most he had scored since he scored 16 last April in the National Championship game.
"I've never played in a game that turned around like this," Johnson said. "They did a good job tonight on making our mistakes into their points."
More importantly for Kansas was keeping its killer instinct with a big lead.
Following the game last week in Columbia, Mo., coach Bill Self said that his players began "playing not to lose" when they blew a 10-point lead with four minutes remaining.
Friday night, the Jayhawks made sure that problem was solved.
"I think we just stayed in attack mode," Langford said. "After they hit a couple shots, we just continued to get stops. They hit a couple of threes, but everything inside was contested."
Freshman guard J.R. Giddens added 15 points for Kansas, and Langford scored 10 points and
Keith Langford Junior guard
"I think we just stayed in attack mode. After they hit a couple shots, we just continued to get stops. They hit a couple of threes, but everything inside was contested."
pulled down 10 rebounds. Johnson led Missouri with 26 points but for the second consecutive time lost his battle with Simien.
"He's a great player and we've had some great battles." Simien said of Johnson. "These games will be something I won't forget for a while."
- Edited by Ashley Arnold