Jan. 16, 2001

Box Score

On Saturday, No. 20 Missouri played a mentally and physically exhausting four-overtime game against Iowa State. On Tuesday, the Tigers stumbled around and were upset 80-59 by Kansas State.

If they were just too weary to put up a fight, they'll never admit it.

"This wasn't a question of fatigue," insisted Missouri coach Quin Snyder. "Kansas State executed so well on both ends. They hustled."

Matt Siebrandt scored 20 points and Kansas State held the Tigers to just 20 percent shooting in the first half. For the game, the cold-shooting Tigers were a season-low 29.9 percent.

"They probably were tired," said Seibrandt, a 6-foot-8 forward who got almost all his points inside. "But I just think we right away set the tone for the game. We had a big lead so quick."

After playing the longest game in school history, the Tigers (12-4, 3-1 Big 12) had moved into The Associated Press rankings for the first time in two years.

"We were like, `Gee whiz, we got ranked,"' Snyder said. "I kind of felt this coming. We have a pretty good team but there is a false sense. We are not a good enough team to let them throw inside like that."

The Wildcats knew very well Missouri had just played a 60-minute game.

"Oh, yeah we talked about it," Seibrandt said. "A four-overtime game, we thought they might be worn down. But this is the Big 12. Everybody comes in ready to play, and they did, too."

Phineas Atchison had 16 points and Travis Reynolds had 13 points and 11 rebounds for Kansas State (8-7, 2-2), whose 86-78 victory over Iowa last month had been its only win over a Top 20 opponent in seven years.

The cold-shooting Tigers trailed by as many as 25 points in the second half before staging their only faint threat. Kareem Rush hit a long 3-pointer that capped a 12-4 run and sliced the lead to 58-41 with a little more than 10 minutes to play.

But Kelvin Howell's three-point play a moment later restored Kansas State's lead to 67-45 and brought the loud, raucous crowd to its feet.

Then, on Kansas State's next possession, Siebrandt made a nifty feed to Howell inside for an easy layup, followed by Larry Reid's pass to Atchison on another crowd-pleasing alley-oop.

Missouri missed 13 of its first 16 shots as Kansas State took a 22-point halftime lead over the Tigers, who had won five straight.

Clarence Gilbert, who scored a Big 12 record 43 points in the Iowa State marathon, was just 3-of-11 for seven points, more than 11 below his average.

Rush, the Big 12's leading scorer, was 3-of-12 for 12 points, more than 10 below his average.

Missouri made only six of 30 shots in the first half while Kansas State was 15-of-29. The Wildcats shot a season-best 55 percent.

"Everybody loves to see the underdog win," Kansas State coach Jim Wooldridge said. "And the underdog won tonight."

Travis Reynolds' basket with 5:40 left in the half ignited a 16-0 Kansas State spree at the end of the half which included 3-pointers by Reid and Atchison.

Johnnie Parker's 3-pointer ended the run and sent the Wildcats into halftime with a 38-16 lead.

"It was a great start," Reynolds said. "They came out and played us man-to-man so we got into our triangle offense and everything worked out for us."