Cyclones Edged Out by No. 22 Missouri, 76-73

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) - A cold first half couldn't stop Kareem Rush. He just shot his way out of a slump.

Rush scored 23 of his 27 points in the second half to lead No. 22 Missouri to a 76-73 victory over Iowa State on Wednesday night.

"I thought a lot of my early shots should have fallen, but they didn't," Rush said. "So in the second half I just kept putting them up.

"I'm not going to shy down when I have wide-open shots and I found my way out of it."

Rush was 1-for-8 from the field in the first half as Iowa State, which beat Missouri last month in Ames, Iowa, for its lone conference victory, took a 40-35 lead. Mixing drives with outside jumpers he was 9-for-16 the rest of the way, including four points over the final 1:31, as Missouri came back from a seven-point deficit.

"I think so, it was a little payback," forward Rickey Paulding said. "We wanted to show them that we're a different team than they played in Ames."

Missouri coach Quin Snyder said Rush struggled in the first half because he settled for fadeaway jumpers.

"Usually if you're shooting a fadeaway it's because maybe you haven't gone as hard to the basket," Snyder said. "He was really difficult to guard in the second half. He still took his jump shot but he really went strong to the hole."

Entering the game Rush averaged 26 points for his career against Iowa State, his best against any team.

Two free throws by Paulding with 15 seconds to go gave the Tigers (17-6, 6-3 Big 12) a 75-71 lead. Shane Power hit a layup for Iowa State with 8.9 seconds left, and Rush hit a free throw with 7.4 seconds left, then blocked Jake Sullivan's pass in the Iowa State end with 1.2 seconds to go.

Sullivan's long 3-pointer banked off the backboard and the front of the rim at the buzzer. Coach Larry Eustachy stormed the court unsuccessfully begging for a foul.

"I didn't even see the rim when I shot it, Arthur Johnson's big body was in the way," Sullivan said. "I just tried to draw the foul, threw it up and hoped for a miracle."

Clarence Gilbert, who was guarding Sullivan, said it was a nice try by Eustachy.

"That's part about being a coach," he said. "If there was a foul, they would have called it."

The 6-foot-9, 265-pound Johnson added 13 points and 10 rebounds - his eighth double-double of the season - for Missouri. Paulding had 14 points and Gilbert had 11 points and eight assists for the Tigers, who are 12-1 at home and have won three of four overall.

Tyray Pearson had 26 points for Iowa State, which has lost eight in a row since beating Missouri 71-67 on Jan. 9. Pearson had a career-best 28 in the earlier meeting.

"They played real good stretches of defense late, and that helped them take the lead," Pearson said. "When we made a bad play, they made a good play."

Power added 19 points on 9-for-12 shooting and Sullivan had 13 points for the Cyclones (9-15, 1-9), who are in last place in the Big 12. Six of the losses have been by seven points or less.

"It's been real tough to swallow," Eustachy said. "They've been leaving it out there and they haven't been rewarded.

"They didn't choke, they didn't throw the ball away or anything like that. They just got beat."

The 1-2 punch of Pearson and Power was too much for Missouri in the first half. Pearson had 14 points, scoring on a variety of inside moves, and Power had 13 on a mixture of drives and outside shots.

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Tyray Pearson

Tyray Pearson

Shane Power

Shane Power

Jake Sullivan

Jake Sullivan

Jake Sullivan

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