Missouri men's basketball team whips Baylor 77-59

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Ricardo Ratliffe heard plenty of trash talk right after tipoff. Then Missouri's forward silenced Baylor's big men.

"Yeah, they're weak, they're small," Ratliffe said he overheard from J'Mison Morgan, who scored on a putback for the first basket. "Then we started getting more aggressive and he started kind of being friendly with me.

"I guess they thought we were soft at first, so once we proved them wrong, they just started being on our side, congratulating us."

Ratliffe narrowly missed a double-double in the first half and Laurence Bowers scored 18 of his 20 points in the second and had six steals in the 20th-ranked Tigers' 77-59 victory Wednesday.

Kim English was 4 of 6 from 3-point range and had 16 points for the Tigers (22-6, 8-5), who are the Big 12's only unbeaten team at home (17-0). They've had at least a 15-point second half lead in 12 of the last 13 games.

"It was a lot of guys, and especially in the second half," English said. "It's a thing of beauty when we do it the right way."

LaceDarius Dunn, who leads the conference with a 20.8 average, was scoreless in the first half for Baylor (17-10, 6-7) and finished with 12 points on 4 of 14 shooting with six turnovers.

Perry Jones III had 10 points and 10 rebounds, rallying late after a 2 of 10 shooting start.

"I wasn't frustrated," Dunn said. "Any given moment I can have an outburst. They did a great job of containing me. Give them credit."

Stopping Dunn was a pre-game priority for Missouri, with guard Marcus Denmon getting most of the work.