Missouri walks over easy foe for first win

By R.B. FALLSTROM\AP Sports Writer

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) - 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 on Saturday 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.

Anderson led UAB to three NCAA tournament appearances in four seasons at the school, using the all-out attack favored by his mentor, Nolan Richardson. Richardson attended Friday night's opener.

Anderson had close to a full roster, with freshman guard Keon Lawrence making a rapid recovery from a stress fracture in his left foot and forward Leo Lyons reinstated after violating the team's academic policy. The school had estimated Lawrence, who had three points in nine minutes, would be out four to six weeks after the injury on Oct. 30.

Forward Glen Dandridge remains out with a broken bone in his right foot.

Lawrence was Missouri's top 3-point shooting reserve last season, but averaged only 1.5 points with a high of six points twice. On Friday night, he was 7-for-11 from 3-point range and scored 14 points in the first half and 13 the rest of the way.

Missouri led 14-4 after four minutes, behind a pair of 3-pointers from Hannah, and was up 26-10 after a dunk by Lyons with 13:13 left in the first half. The Tigers allowed points in flurries, too, surrendering a 10-0 run over the next two minutes, the last seven by Crumpton, that shaved the advantage to six.

Seven minutes later the gap had again been restored to 16 points after Lawrence's fast-break layup made it 48-32 with 4:19 to go.

The Tigers, notoriously slow starting last season - they failed to reach the 30-point mark by halftime in with 16 of 28 games - shot 61 percent in the first half Friday night. Last season the Tigers trailed at the break against their first two opponents, Sam Houston State and Northwestern State.