STILLWATER, Okla. - In its first appearance as the nation's second-ranked team on Wednesday at Gallagher-Iba Arena, Mizzou flopped, falling 79-72 to a young and struggling Oklahoma State team.
MU fell to 18-2 overall and 5-2 in Big 12 play. The Cowboys improved to 10-10 and 3-4 in the league.
Oklahoma State features six freshmen among its nine regulars. But as Mizzou guard Kim English noted Monday, "Sometimes young guys can hurt you because of their obliviousness."
Two of them had career highs, Le'Bryan Nash with 27 and Brian Williams with 22, to pave the way for OSU.
Ricardo Ratliffe had 25 for the Tigers, including 19 in the second half, and Marcus Denmon added 17, but MU simply was outshot by OSU: The Tigers hit 40 percent from the field (26 of 65), while OSU shot nearly 60 percent (31-52, 59.6 percent).
The Cowboys led 37-36 at halftime on Keiton Page's jumper just before the buzzer, the last of 10 lead changes - and five ties - in the first 20 minutes.
OSU shot 57.1 percent (16 of 28) along the way, while MU made just 14 of 34 from the field in the half, with national field-goal shooting leader Ratliffe missing a season-high six shots in nine attempts.
He finished 10 of 17.
The Tigers opened the second half with an 8-2 run to take their first lead of more than three points on a Ratliffe follow of a Denmon miss.
They went up 53-45 on a three-point play by Ratliffe, but OSU cut the lead to three points on back-to-back layups by Nash and had a chance to tie only for Page's 3-pointer to swirl out.
MU went back up five on Ratliffe's jam off a Phil Pressey steal. With 6:59 to go, OSU cut it to three again on a Markel Brown dunk.
But Brown was called for his second technical of the game, and Denmon hit two free throws and Ratliffe added two more off the ensuing possession to give the Tigers a seven-point lead.
It wasn't safe, though, as OSU cut it to 60-58 on a Nash 3 with 5:22 left.
Two more Nash 3-pointers gave the Cowboys a 68-65 lead with 2:52 left, and a Page jumper made it 70-64 before a Ratliffe basket ended OSU's 12-2 run.
Mizzou cut it to four on two Ratliffe free throws with just over a minute left, but OSU went right back up seven on a three-point play by Williams and the Tigers never got closer than five away down the stetch.
