College Basketball: The Missouri Tigers Bench Knocks Out the Oklahoma Sooners

With 12 minutes left in the first half, Missouri was down to the Oklahoma Sooners 18-11. Then the bench took over.

The Tigers went on a six minute knockout run that included five straight points by Ricky Kreklow, then four straight points by Steve Moore, followed by a Flip Pressey three, and then two-points by Ratliffe. That 14-0 run would put the Tigers up for good, and it was sparked by two of the lowest minute guys on the team.

Kreklow has undoubtedly struggled in Big 12 play this year. With only eight points since January 5th (he got seven of those today), he has just struggled to get any rhythm going on the offensive end of the court, which has frustrated Mizzou fans.

Moore has shown improvement in limited minutes this year. Although he does not fit the pace of the "fastest 40 minutes in basketball", Steve has shown ability to eat up minutes while Ratliffe, Bowers and Safford need a break or are in foul trouble. Today was one of his best performances of the year, especially considering he looked effective in the post and was calling for the ball.

He also stayed out of foul trouble which is traditionally what he has the most problems with.

Missouri also had some of their regular contributors come up big off of the bench. Mike Dixon had a game high 16 points and Justin Safford had 11 points. Players in the starting lineup that had a big game included Ricardo Ratilffe with 13 points, Laurence Bowers with eight points and nine rebounds and Phil Pressey filling up the box score with six points, two rebounds, three assists and three steals.

English seemed to come out flat again while trying to force shots. Matt Pressey looked ineffective scoring, but put up five assists. Marcus Denmon had nine points before getting hurt in the middle of the second half.

Mizzou continues through conference play when they take on Texas Tech at home on Tuesday.