AP TOP 25/SEC MEN

Tigers lose Bowers, beat Tide

— Laurence Bowers has been enjoying a big comeback season for No. 10 Missouri, leading the Tigers in scoring and second in rebounding entering the school’s SEC debut.

Now he’s hurt again.

The senior forward injured his right knee with about six minutes left in an 84-68 victory over Alabama on Tuesday night when teammate Phil Pressey landed on his leg underneath the Missouri basket and Coach Frank Haith believed Bowers sprained the medial collateral ligament.

Bowers, who missed all last season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee, will undergo a magnetic resonance imaging Wednesday. Bowers, who finished with 16 points and five rebounds in 31 minutes, smacked his hands together, showing his frustration, when he returned to the end of the bench with about four minutes to go.

“They’re going to look at it,” Haith said. “We don’t know the extent of it. We’re concerned when any of our guys get hurt.”

Bowers is averaging nearly 17 points and seven rebounds.

Jabari Brown hit a careerhigh five consecutive threepointers after an early miss and Pressey responded from a shaky first half with 11 points and 13 assists. Pressey slightly sprained an ankle when he collided with Bowers but missed less than a minute.

Trevor Releford had a career-best 26 points with 3 three-pointers and topped 1,000 points for Alabama (8-6, 0-1), which has lost six of eight. Coach Anthony Grant lost for the first time in seven career conference openers, three at Virginia Commonwealth and four at Alabama.

Missouri shot 59 percent from the field in the second half. The Tigers shot 56 percent overall and were 9 for 15 from three-point range.

“We couldn’t get stops,” Grant said. “To me, that was the story of the second half. Whether it was the press, transition, half-court, we did not defend the way we would need to defend to be able to come on the road against an opponent like Missouri and get a win.”

Brown scored a careerhigh 22 points on 7-for-11 overall shooting, three days after making only one of nine attempts in a two-point victory over Bucknell.

“Coach always tells me, ‘Don’t get down on yourself, don’t let one play discourage you,’ ” Brown said. “So I’ve just been having that mindset and I’m glad that game was history.

“It feels like the basket gets bigger out there.”

Earnest Ross added a season-best 19 points for Missouri (12-2, 1-0) and Alex Oriakhi helped the Tigers pull away with 10 of his 16 points over the final 11 minutes. He grabbed 11 rebounds. Oriakhi powered for two inside baskets in a 9-2 run that put the Tigers up 62-51 with nine minutes to go and Alabama got no closer than six points the rest of the way.

NO. 1 DUKE 68 CLEMSON 40

DURHAM, N.C. — Quinn Cook scored a career-high 27 points and No. 1 Duke held Clemson to its lowest-scoring half in 12 years.

Ryan Kelly added 12 points in the first half but sat out the second with what team officials said was a right leg injury.

The Blue Devils (15-0, 2-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) shot 48 percent, built a 42-31 rebounding advantage and pulled away down the stretch to improve to 58-4 at home against the Tigers.

Devin Booker had 12 points and 15 rebounds for Clemson (8-6, 0-2), which had season lows for points and shooting percentage (28 percent) and shot 12 percent in its brutal first half.

NO. 13 CREIGHTON 91, DRAKE 61

OMAHA, Neb. — Ethan Wragge matched career highs with 22 points and six three-pointers for No. 13 Creighton, which made a season-high 16 threes against Drake. Doug McDermott added 16 points, Jahenns Manigat had 13 and Grant Gibbs 10 for the Bluejays (15-1, 4-0 Missouri Valley Conference), who won their ninth consecutive game. Creighton has won 71 consecutive against opponents .500 or worse, and it was apparent early that the streak was in no jeopardy. The Bluejays led by 30 points in the first half and by 35 late in the second. Joey King scored 17 points for Drake (6-9, 0-4).

NO. 15 OHIO STATE 74, PURDUE 64

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Deshaun Thomas scored 22 points to lead No. 15 Ohio State past Purdue. The Buckeyes (12-3, 2-1) rebounded from their first Big Ten loss by shooting 56.4 percent from the field. They took a 10-point halftime lead despite losing point guard Aaron Craft for all but 4:19 of the first half because of early foul trouble, and Buckeyes Coach Thad Matta got his 100th Big Ten victory. Purdue (7-8, 1-2) has lost two consecutive to top 20 teams since upsetting No. 11 Illinois last week.

PITTSBURGH 73, NO. 19 GEORGETOWN 45

WASHINGTON — Talib Zanna scored 15 points and Pittsburgh shot 55 percent from the field. Zanna went 7 for 9 from the field, Tray Woodall added 11 points and seven assists for the Panthers (13-3, 1-2), who dominated the Hoyas from the opening tip to bounce back from two Big East losses that knocked them out of the top 25. The Hoyas (10-3, 0-2) shot 35 percent to lose by more than 20 points at home for the first time in 13 years.

Sports, Pages 22 on 01/09/2013

Upcoming Events