Seven tough Missouri Tigers too much for Iowa State to tame

AMES - He's a ballhandler. He's a passer. He's a rebounder. He's a scorer. He's a special player.

But what Iowa State's Royce White isn't is a free throw-shooter. And that hurt his team badly Wednesday night.

White shot eight free throws in his team's 76-69 loss to No. 9 Missouri in a highly charged contest at Hilton Coliseum. He airballed as many as he made, which was two.

Had he made six instead of missing that many, the game would have been up for grabs. Given Missouri's foul problems, with two members of its 7-man rotation fouled out and center Ricardo Ratliffe playing with four personals, an overtime might have been tilted toward the Cyclones.

This is written with the realization the Cyclones (12-4 overall, 2-1 in the Big 12) would be run-of-the-mill at best without the 6-foot-8, 270-pound talent from Minneapolis. But White is now 12-of-29 from the line in league play, a pretty glaring problem considering ISU's offense goes through him.

You can't go 13-of-25 from the stripe as ISU did and beat a team as capable as the Tigers.

“For me, it's been a frustrating year altogether (shooting free throws),” said White, who is 58-of-107. “I'm trying to find rhythm, trying to find a stroke, trying to find hand-placement.

“It's tough with my (large) hands, but I've got to work on it.”

Cyclones Coach Fred Hoiberg, who seldom saw a free throw he didn't couldn't make as an ISU player, saw a bigger problem for his team. Scott Christopherson sank a half-court shot to end the first-half and give Iowa State a 38-36 lead, but the 3-pointer didn't put as much as a hint of a smile on Hoiberg's face.

“I thought that shot was fool's gold,” Hoiberg said.

“I almost broke the (locker room) door down. I was furious. They made every hustle play in the first-half. We made one. That's not good enough against a Top Ten team that has the confidence like they do.”

Hoiberg said his guys executed his game plan, but were woefully lacking when it came to chasing down rebounds and loose balls. Missouri entered here a 41 percent-shooting team from 3-point range, but was a chilly 5-of-21. However, the 15-1 Tigers made play after play, smart ones as well as the aforementioned hustle plays.

If any team in the nation has a better pair of point guards than Phil Pressey and Michael Dixon, bet on it to win lots of games. If the Cyclones had just one of those two running the point, you'd be penciling them in for an NCAA tournament berth right now.

There was no apparent doubt in Mizzou's minds, no wilting from the wall of sound created by the crowd of 13,198, no backing down from White despite the many ways he breaks down defenders.

Even with his first-half foul trouble that sidelined him for 13 minutes, White had 16 points and six assists. He forced a lot of fouls, won a lot of battles. But Missouri's center combo of Ratliffe and Steve Moore won the war with a combined 22 points and 17 rebounds.

“He's a great player,” Pressey said about White, “but he puts on his shoes just like we do. He brought it tonight and we did our best to stop him.”

Here's the kind of team the Tigers have: Guard Marcus Denmon came to Ames leading the Big 12 in scoring with 18.7 points a game. But of the seven players Frank Haith used Wednesday, Denmon was the only one not to score at least 10 points. But he did have a career-high seven assists.

The 6-3 senior took only five shots from the floor. Four of his six points came on free throws in the last 21 seconds. He is now 50-of-54 from the line, marginally better than Dixon, who is 61-of-67. The team makes almost 77 percent of its freebies.

Missouri is in the national top 10 in several good categories like shooting, scoring margin, fewest personal fouls and fewest turnovers. That spells winning.

That's being done with a core of just seven players - four of them guards - who go pedal to the metal. They contest everything on defense, and are in constant attack mode offensively.

Yet, this game was so winnable for Iowa State. Twenty-five free throw tries to just 12 for Missouri.

It was a lost opportunity for the Cyclones. A fine opponent had a lot to do with denying it.