"It's a luxury to have a team where we have seven guys who can get it done on any given night; when a team can play unselfishly like that, we will be fine," said English. "The shots we had in the first half were tremendous, they just didn't fall for some of the other guys."
The Red Raiders kept the game close throughout. Texas Tech trailed by only seven points at halftime. The Red Raiders ocused defensively on shutting down the Tigers inside-outside game. Senior Ricardo Ratliffe cooled-off from an already hot January, scoring just eight points, and grabbing only four rebounds.
"We knew coming into the game that Ricardo Ratliffe was shooting very well," Texas Tech's Jay Crockett. "We wanted to put pressure on their guards to make it harder for them to get the ball inside to him."
Texas Tech cut the Mizzou lead to seven with only 2:37 to go in the game, after the Tigers went without a basket for nearly seven minutes. However, Missouri shut the door on a possible upset, scoring the final six points of the game.
Senior guard Marcus Denmon added 19 points for the Tigers. Sophomore guard Phil Pressey dished out a career-tying 12 assists.
Crockett added 11 points and 11 rebounds for Texas Tech.
"I thought today we played Big 12 basketball," said Haith. "It was a hard-fought, Big 12 game, where Texas Tech came in and with a game plan to limit our paint production, and they did that."
Missouri will go on the road for a "Big Monday" match-up against Texas on ESPN. Tip-off is at 8:00 p.m.
