Dec 29, 2001

Box Score

By RICK GANO
AP Sports Writer

CHICAGO (AP) - Andre Brown scored 18 points, and DePaul sent No. 10 Missouri to its third straight loss, holding on to beat the cold-shooting Tigers 63-62 Saturday.

Missouri (9-3) shot 33 percent, and star Kareem Rush was just 5-of-18 while scoring 15 points. Arthur Johnson led the Tigers with a career-high 20 points and also had 18 rebounds.

Quemont Greer added 12 points and Imari Sawyer 11 for DePaul (7-4), which won its fourth straight game.

The Blue Demons were 21-of-34 from the line to just 6-of-10 for Missouri, but it was the Tigers' third straight game of poor shooting from the field that hurt them the most. Wesley Stokes was just 1-of-9, Clarence Gilbert 5-of-16.

DePaul had a 62-56 lead and the ball in the closing seconds, but turned it over on an inbounds pass, and Missouri nearly came back.

Rickey Paulding banked in a 3-pointer with 16 seconds left and, after DePaul's Sam Hoskin made the second of two free throws, Gilbert banked in another 3-pointer to get the Tigers to 63-62 with four seconds to go.

But DePaul inbounded the ball to Sawyer, who made a nice catch and then threw the ball up in the air as the clock ran out.

Brown had a follow slam and a jump hook as DePaul went on an 8-0 run to take a 55-47 lead with 4:44 left as Missouri went scoreless for seven minutes.

But two baskets by Johnson and Gilbert's three-point play with three minutes left got the Tigers back to 56-54.

Sawyer then banked in a jumper and hit a free throw with 37 seconds left, and Lance Williams added two more from the line as the Blue Demons went up six and then held on.

When Brown took an alley-oop pass from Sawyer for a dunk and Sawyer hit a 3-pointer to start the second half, DePaul had a 42-29 lead.

Rush had a dunk on a break and hit a 3-pointer to highlight an 18-5 run that tied the game at 47 with just under 11 minutes left.

Missouri had dropped consecutive games to Iowa and Illinois after opening with nine straight victories.

The Tigers shot 50 percent in their nine wins and just 35 percent in the losses, a trend that continued Saturday.

Rush made just 3-of-10 first-half field-goal attempts against DePaul's scrappy defense. Missouri managed just two field goals in the final 4{ minutes of the first half - including a jumper just before the buzzer by Stokes - and DePaul led 37-29 at the break.