The Missouri Tigers took full advantage of the youth of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish on Sunday. Notre Dame is usually a pretty good defensive team, but they looked slow and inexperienced against the speed of Missouri on Monday night in the CBE Classic semifinals. Marcus Denmon piled in 26 points on 9 of 11 shooting and Phil Pressey chipped in 17 points. Ricardo Ratliffe added 12 points and eight rebounds. Missouri shot 58% from the field and held Notre Dame to 37% from the field, and were never seriously threatened, leading by 15 at halftime and opening it up through the second half.

Missouri will play Cal in a battle of two top 25 teams in the Sprint Center after the Golden Bears shut down Missouri, and it figures to be a battle of great guard play while the bigs try to perform well as well. Can Jorge Gutierrez, Justin Cobbs and Brandon Smith maintain their solid man-to-man defense against what figures to be one of the most talented backcourts they face?

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