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No. 20 Cal Men Fall To No. 21 Missouri

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Kim English had 19 points to lead six Tigers in double figures and No. 21 Missouri dominated No. 20 California 92-53 on Tuesday night to win the CBE Classic.

Marcus Denmon added 18 points and was the tournament's Most Valuable Player. Matt Pressey had 13 points and Michael Dixon finished with 11 for the Tigers (5-0), who won the event just a couple hours' drive from their campus in Columbia for the second time in four appearances.

Missouri built a 45-26 lead by halftime and the outcome was never in doubt over the final 20 minutes, with coach Frank Haith pulling his starters with a few minutes left in the game.

Jorge Gutierrez scored 11 points to lead Cal (4-1), but fouled out with 11:12 remaining. Richard Solomon also fouled out with more than 7 minutes left and finished with nine points.

The Tigers used relentless man-to-man, half-court pressure to force the guard-oriented Golden Bears into a plethora of early turnovers, and the result was a lot of easy points.

After a free throw by Allen Crabbe got Cal within 19-14 with just under 10 minutes left in the first half, the Tigers went on a 12-2 spurt in which five different players scored. Phil Pressey's bucket with 7:29 left prompted Cal coach Mike Montgomery to call timeout, but Dixon added a 3-pointer moments later off a feed from Denmon to keep the run going.

Denmon's two free throws made it 31-16 with 5:55 remaining in the half.

The Golden Bears committed three straight turnovers at one point during the stretch, and wound up with 14 of them in the first half, which Missouri turned into 15 points.

The Tigers, who took a 45-26 lead on two foul shots by Phil Pressey with under a minute left in the half, wound up shooting 3 of 12 from beyond the arc and got outrebounded 22-11 over the first 20 minutes, yet still managed to build what turned out to be an insurmountable lead.

The Golden Bears had grown accustomed to being on the other side of the scoreboard.

They routed Georgia 70-46 in the semifinals Monday night, their fourth consecutive victory by at least 17 points. The win gave them their best start since Montgomery took over four years ago, and was made even more impressive when the Bulldogs knocked off Notre Dame in the third-place game.

Of course, the Tigers also had their way with the Fighting Irish.

Missouri showed over two games in Kansas City that it has made a flawless transition from the fast-paced, "40 minutes of hell" style of former coach Mike Anderson to a style employed by Haith that values scrappy defense, transition baskets and lights-out shooting.

All of which was on display Tuesday night.

Things were going so well for the Tigers that when Moore was left open at the top of the key late in the first half, he popped the 3-pointer and hit nothing but net. It was the 6-foot-9 senior center's third career 3, and it brought a heavily pro-Missouri crowd to its feet in a roar.

The din never died down in the second half.

Denmon's 3-pointer extended the lead to 20 less than 90 seconds in, and he added another basket before English curled in his second 3-pointer of the game.

The Golden Bears never managed to get into a rhythm, settling for a series of off-balance jumpers, awkward shots at the rim and contested 3-pointers—when they got a shot off at all.

Just as often, it seemed, California was coughing up the ball. The 14 turnovers it had in the first half were two shy of its season high, set against Austin Peay last week, and one fewer than it had in the semifinals against Georgia the previous night.

(Copyright 2011 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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