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PrintAMES, Iowa — Prior to tipoff Tuesday night, Keon Lawrence lived out a dream. In the second half of Missouri’s 77-55 win over Iowa State, he helped his teammates avoid a recurring nightmare.
Lawrence was the last Tiger announced as part of the team’s starting lineup. He ran on to the floor, high-fiving his teammates, and bumped chests with Stefhon Hannah. It was a special moment for the freshman guard, his first career start.
“Oh man, it felt good,” he said. I had to come out there and set the tone for the bench, like I told the starters when I was on the bench, ‘Set the tone, go out there and play hard.’”
For Lawrence, who was coming off an 18-point performance in Missouri’s loss to Nebraska Saturday, and a 15-point effort in the team’s Jan. 31 loss to Kansas State, it was far from his best night, statistically. He was just 3-for-9 shooting and finished with eight points.
“I missed a lot of easy shots, he said. “It wasn’t really my night.”
He did, however, deliver key points in big moments in the second half. After Iowa State had gone on a brief run to cut the Tigers lead to 10 and forced Missouri coach Mike Anderson to call a timeout with 10:14 left in the game, Lawrence scored to cut off any momentum the Cyclones may have been building.
Then again, less than a minute after Iowa State had closed within nine points of the Tigers, Lawrence knocked down a big three-pointer, quieting the 11,933 fans in the Hilton Coliseum stands and forcing Iowa State into a timeout with 7:39 left. The Cyclones trailed by double-digits the rest of the game.
Missouri blew a 16-point lead in a Jan. 6 loss to Iowa State in Columbia, and also squandered second-half leads against Kansas and Kansas State. Lawrence and his teammates made sure that didn’t happen Tuesday night.
“Coach told us don’t let up,” Lawrence said. “There’s still a lot of time, still attack them on offense and make them take tough shots on defense.”
Instead of faltering in the second half, the Tigers (14-8, 3-6 in the Big 12) turned a five-point halftime lead into a rout, with a swarming defense that forced the Cyclones into 16 turnovers. Iowa State (12-11, 3-6) shot just 35.2 percent on the night.
“We were a lot more aggressive,” Anderson said. “They want to play slow tempo, we want to play up-tempo, and we created a lot of that with our defense.”
After Saturday’s loss to Nebraska, which Anderson said was probably the lowest his team had been, Lawrence said a team meeting helped the team gear up for Tuesday’s game.
“We all had to come together,” he said. “We had to get some stuff off our chests. It helped. We have to do from here on out, whatever it takes. We have to play our basketball, 40 minutes of hell.”
Tuesday night may have been a night Lawrence will always remember. But, more importantly, it was a night the Tigers got a win that enabled them to move on from the disappointment of the last week. It was a night that brought the infectious smile Lawrence is known for back to his face.
“I was hurting (after Nebraska), tears were coming to my eyes and stuff,” he said. “I love winning.”
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