Ford, Texas hold off Missouri

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Texas freshman T.J. Ford dazzled another opponent.

Ford had 18 points, 12 assists and a career-best five steals as the Longhorns took control early and hung on in the final minute for a 72-70 victory over Missouri on Sunday. He also hit a pair of clinching free throws with 5.1 seconds left.

"I wouldn't trade him for anybody in the country," coach Rick Barnes said. "T.J. told me before that last inbounds that he wanted the ball, that he wanted the game in his hands. He did great with it."

Ford exceeded his nation-leading average of 8.65 assists per game in helping the Longhorns (17-8, 8-4 Big 12) hand Missouri only its second loss at home.

"We felt they weren't going to be able to stop the ball in the point guard matchup," Ford said. "Gilbert's quick and he got aggressive, but I was able to back him off pretty well by penetrating."

Ford, who was 8-for-9 at the free-throw line, is attempting to become the first freshman to lead the country in assists and has a school-record 13 double-figure assist games. He's had three straight double-doubles in points and assists and easily outplayed Missouri point guard Clarence Gilbert, who was held to eight points -- half of his average -- and took only four shots.

"This wasn't one of his best games," coach Quin Snyder said.

Ford's free throws gave Texas a 72-69 lead. Gilbert was fouled with 3.2 seconds left and made the first of two, then missed the second intentionally, but Texas got the rebound.

Deginald Erskin added a career-best 18 points, including four first-half dunks, and Brian Boddicker had 11 points as Texas beat Missouri (18-8, 7-5) for the third straight time.

The teams entered the game tied for third place in the Big 12. The top four teams get a first-round bye in the conference tournament.

"This is hard," Snyder said. "This is a gut-wrenching loss."

Texas led by as many as 12 points in the first half, and by 11 with 8:58 remaining. Missouri cut the gap to one with a 15-5 run, getting nine points from Rickey Paulding to make it 66-65 with 3:54 left.

But Missouri, which committed a season-worst 22 turnovers, missed several golden opportunities to go ahead in the final seconds:

Paulding, a 77-percent free throw shooter, missed a pair of free throws with 10.2 seconds to go and Missouri down by a point. "It never occurred to me that there would be a lid on the basket with Rickey at the line," Snyder said. "He wasn't nervous, he just missed two."

Missouri got the ball back after Brandon Mouton was called for traveling on a wild scramble for the ball on the ensuing inbounds, but Paulding stepped out of bounds after taking a pass from Kareem Rush.

Rush had 16 points, but was only 4-for-19. Paulding also had 16 points.