Columbia, Mo. ? Matt Lawrence scored a career-high 27 points, 21 more than his previous best, helping Missouri to an easy 101-80 season-opening victory over North Carolina A&T in new coach Mike Anderson’s debut Friday night.
Leo Lyons added 16 points and Stefhon Hannah had 13 for the Tigers, who open the year with three games in as many days in the John Thompson Foundation Classic. Missouri plays Army today and will play Stetson on Sunday in the round-robin tournament. Army beat Stetson, 80-68, in Friday’s early game.
Jason Wills had 17 points and Derek Crumpton 14 for North Carolina A&T, which was 6-23 last season.
Anderson’s hurry-up style produced flurries of points from both teams, and resulted in the school’s first 100-point game since a 106-89 victory over North Carolina-Greensboro on Dec. 21, 2003. The Tigers were 12-16 last season and averaged 66 points,
second-lowest in the Big 12, in Quin Snyder’s final season as coach.
Missouri’s recent struggles, along with a lightly regarded opponent, likely factored into a thin crowd of 6,230 – less than half the capacity of Mizzou Arena.
No. 13 Texas A&M 81, Prairie View 49
College Station, Texas – Big men Joseph Jones and Antanas Kavaliauskas scored 16 points apiece for Texas A&M, which won its seventh straight home opener. Jones and Kavaliauskas, who are both 6-foot-9, were too much for the Panthers, and they had no trouble hitting easy shots under the basket throughout the game.
No. 21 Texas 92, Chicago State 66
Austin, Texas – A.J. Abrams scored 28 points, including eight three-pointers, to lead Texas in the Austin regional championship game of the Coaches vs. Cancer tournament. Abrams, selected the regional’s most valuable player, hit five three-pointers in the first eight minutes.
Colorado 78, Denver 64
Boulder, Colo. – Richard Roby scored 20 points, and Colorado remained unbeaten in 11 season openers under coach Ricardo Patton.
Oklahoma State 95, Florida Atlantic 50
Stillwater, Okla. – Mario Boggan and Terrel Harris each scored 17 points to lead Oklahoma State in Sean Sutton’s first official game as the Cowboys’ head coach. Sutton, who had been an assistant, temporarily replaced his father on the Cowboys’ bench for the final 11 games last season after Eddie Sutton was involved in a drunk-driving accident in February. The move became permanent in May, when Eddie Sutton retired.
Iowa State 69, UC Riverside 61
Ames, Iowa – Mike Taylor scored 22 points, and Iowa State rebounded from a shaky stretch at the end of the first half to give Greg McDermott a victory in his first game as coach.
Oklahoma 99, Norfolk State 36
Norman, Okla. – Austin Johnson hit five three-pointers and scored 18 points to lead Oklahoma, giving Jeff Capel a win in his first game as the Sooners’ coach. Freshman guard Tony Crocker added 15 points for Oklahoma.
