Hannah steals show in exhibition opener

Although it was only an exhibition, Friday night’s game against in-state opponent Missouri-Rolla was Mike Anderson’s first as the Missouri men’s basketball coach.

But one Missouri guard quickly stole the spotlight from his coach.

Stefhon Hannah reminded Missouri fans why they heard his name so much throughout the offseason.

Behind Hannah’s 25 points, the Tigers rolled to an easy 105-67 victory over the Miners.

Hannah, a junior transfer from Chipola Community College in Marianna, Fla., proved to be nearly unstoppable in the first half, when he scored 18 of his 25 points. During one spurt in the first half, the junior guard totaled eight points in three successive possessions.

Hannah used his step-back 3-pointers to draw out the defense, and followed with dribble penetration in the lane. He shot 9-of-17 from the field and 4-of-6 from beyond the 3-point line.

But it wasn’t just his scoring that lead the Tigers to the exhibition win. In 25 minutes, Hannah added six assists, and more importantly for a guard in Anderson’s system, seven steals.

The Tigers’ new, up-tempo style of basketball that Anderson brought along looked like a perfect fit for Hannah, who stretched the court with long passes in transition. Two of his assists came on perfectly-placed alley-oop passes from nearly half-court to forward Marshall Brown, who added 20 points and nine rebounds for Missouri.

“It was exciting. That felt good,” Hannah said. “We got a new style of playing basketball where we run up and down the court. He was running. And I just saw him. I passed it and he went up and got it.”

As for the steals, Hannah’s seven were good for the team lead. The Tigers forced 36 Missouri-Rolla turnovers, leading to 44 Missouri points off turnovers.

Anderson said he thought the defense was inspired by the crowd’s reactions to Brown’s dunks.

“That’s fun basketball,” Anderson said. “And I think the guys enjoy it. When you make a play like that, the energy level just goes up another level on defense.”

Missouri ran its full-court press for the entire game, and then fell back into a variety of defenses after half court, which included some man-to-man, some zone defense and a half-court trap. The different looks seemed to confuse the Miners, and the Tigers took advantage with 23 steals on the night.

That number, however, still wasn’t high enough to satisfy junior guard Jason Horton, who picked up five steals.

“At times I thought we gambled too much,” Horton said. “But I think we did a fairly decent job. We need to get a lot better. They say a team does the most improvement from the first to second game, so we can come out on Monday and do better.”

Horton and Hannah got the chance to play together in Friday’s game, something they rarely get to do. Usually the two are battling each other in practice, each running the point guard on opposing teams.

“I’m tired of looking at No. 3 on the opposite side of the ball,” Horton said of Hannah. “(Anderson) puts us against each other every day to make us better. It was fun just being able to play with each other.”

LYONS SUSPENDED: Anderson suspended sophomore Leo Lyons indefinitely for violation of the team’s academic policy. Last year, the 6-foot-9 forward averaged 2.6 points ad 2.4 rebounds per game. Lyons will continue to practice

with the team during his suspension.

THE STARTING FIVE: Hannah, Horton, Brown, Matt Lawrence and Kalen Grimes started for the Tigers. Hannah started at the point guard, while Horton played mostly off-guard. Anderson said the starting five is subject to change at any point during the season. He em-

phasized the team’s bench play as an important factor in Friday’s

win.