BOULDER, Colo.—Missouri made sure it didn’t have another second-half meltdown. Instead, the Tigers buried Colorado with a second-half surge.
Marcus Denmon scored a career-high 22 points, Kim English had 21 points and Missouri routed the Buffaloes 84-66 on Saturday.
The Tigers (17-6, 5-3 Big 12) had their 32-game home win streak snapped Wednesday when they blew an 11-point lead in a 77-74 loss to Texas A&M. Thanks to a strong defense and solid outside shooting Saturday, there was no such collapse against the Buffaloes.
“We always try to be a defensive-minded team first,” Denmon said. “When you’ve got the defensive rhythm going, it allows your offense to be that much better.”
The Tigers’ defense held Colorado to seven field goals and forced nine turnovers in the first half as they took a 42-39 lead into the break.
Against the Aggies, they faltered after halftime, but they only got better against Colorado. Ahead 43-33, they went on a 14-4 run aided by consecutive 3-pointers from Denmon and English that pushed the lead to 57-37 with 14:40 to go.
“I thought it was one of our more complete games,” Missouri coach Mike Anderson said. “I thought we were blue collar. We looked like the team of last year. We established our identity on defense. I thought we took the fight to Colorado.”
Missouri led by 23 before Colorado (11-12, 2-7), coming off a 72-66 overtime loss to No. 1 Kansas on Wednesday, cut it to 66-53 with 6:18 left, but the lead quickly swelled to 20.
“Teams are going to go on runs,” English said. “We just had to stop the bleeding.”
Colorado had no answer to Missouri, which had four players score in double figures.
“We couldn’t make a shot and they were making everything they took,” Colorado associate head coach Steve McClain said.
Missouri knew winning a road game was important after losing at home to Texas A&M.
“For us, we’re in the hunt for something,” Anderson said. “We’re trying to win a championship. We lost a game at home so we’ve got to steal a game on the road, so we stole a game on the road.
Alec Burks, who sat out Wednesday’s game with a sprained left knee, scored a career-high 27 points, and Cory Higgins added 15 for the Buffaloes, who have lost six of their last seven.
Burks was raised in suburban Kansas City but said playing against a team he grew up watching didn’t matter.
“It wasn’t really anything special,” he said. “They are just another team with another name on the jersey.”
Senior Dwight Thorne II acknowledged the Buffaloes were feeling the effects of the emotional loss to the Jayhawks.
“It was a tough one to bounce back from,” Thorne said. “I didn’t foresee it being the way it was today, but you can tell there was a little bit missing that was there during the Kansas game.”
Colorado coach Jeff Bzdelik paced the sidelines with a heavy heart. His mother, Ruth, passed away Thursday. He left immediately after the game to catch a flight to Chicago.
