Hannah, Lawrence lead Tigers

~ Missouri ended its home losing streak at twowith a 78-71 winagainst Baylor.

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- To win games, Mike Anderson said a team has to have somebody willing to make plays down the stretch. In a 78-71 win over Baylor on Wednesday, his Missouri team had two of them.

Stefhon Hannah scored 17 of his 25 points in the second half, Keon Lawrence scored a career-high 24, and Missouri (15-9, 4-7) held off a late Baylor rally to end its two-game home losing skid.

"He's going to be the hero, he's going to be the goat sometimes," Anderson said of Hannah. "Whether that play is getting the ball to somebody, or they get to the free throw line or stepping up and making a shot, you've got to have somebody to step up to the plate."

At the beginning of the second half, that was Lawrence. The freshman guard scored 11 points in a 9-minute stretch to start the second half as Missouri turned a three-point halftime lead into a 14-point advantage.

Kevin Rogers hit a turnaround jumper over Marshall Brown to tie the game at 63-63 with under 6 minutes to play. Brown hit a pair of free throws to put Missouri back up by two, then Hannah hit a 3-pointer, his fourth of the game, to push the lead to five. Hannah scored seven points in the final 3:30 and Baylor never got closer than three points the rest of the way.

"I think this shows that our team, we can do it," said Hannah, who came within two points of his career high. "We can win down the stretch under pressure."

Missouri has had its troubles this year closing out games. Before Wednesday, the Tigers had lost all five of their conference games decided by seven points or less -- including heartbreakers to Iowa State, Kansas State and Kansas.

"Teams are going to make runs back at you, but to our guys' credit, they did not panic," Anderson said. "We've seen, in previous games where we didn't make those plays. We didn't make the free throws, we didn't make the stops."

Lawrence played his best game since being inserted into the starting lineup last week. He was one of Missouri's first players off the bench until his first start Feb. 6 against Iowa State. Wednesday, he was 9-for-13 shooting, including 4-for-6 from 3-point range. He also had eight rebounds.

Baylor coach Scott Drew said defense on Hannah and Lawrence was lacking because of the absence of Aaron Bruce, Baylors most experienced guard.

"I'm disappointed in our perimeter defenders that we didn't do a better job on them," Drew said. "I think Aaron's absence really hurt us from a standpoint that he's one of our leaders."