Caleb Grill lights up Pacific in Missouri’s win

Caleb Grill scored 25 points and made five steals as Missouri routed Pacific 91-56 Friday night in Columbia, Mo.Tamar Bates added 11 points and Trent Pierce scored 10 points and grabbed five reboun

Caleb Grill lights up Pacific in Missouri’s win

Caleb Grill scored 25 points and made five steals as Missouri routed Pacific 91-56 Friday night in Columbia, Mo.

Tamar Bates added 11 points and Trent Pierce scored 10 points and grabbed five rebounds in just 14 minutes for Missouri (4-1).

Coach Dennis Gates used 12 players and 11 of them scored as Missouri got 57 points off of its bench. Grill sank seven 3-pointers.

Elias Ralph led Pacific (3-4) with 19 points. Seth Jones added 15.

Pacific missed just of 29 shots from 3-point range and got outscored 17-6 at the free-throw line.

Pacific raced to a 9-4 lead with its half-court offense freeing up cutters to the basket. Ralph scored three times at the rim during that run.

With Marques Warrick hitting two free throws and a 3-point jumper, Missouri used a 7-0 run for its first lead at 11-9.

Missouri picked up its offensive pace by forcing live-ball turnovers with its 1-3-1 zone defense and then scoring in transition. It pushed its lead to 27-15 with 3-pointers by Grill and Josh Gray.

Grill hit consecutive 3-pointers, then converted his steal into a fast break basket to put Missouri up 40-24.

Pacific countered with a 5-0 run with Jones hitting a 3-pointer, but Missouri closed the half with a 14-2 surge to take a 54-31 lead into the break,

In the first half, Missouri hit 10 of 19 shots from 3-point range, outscored Pacific 13-0 in transition and built a 31-7 edge in bench points. Pacific turned the ball over seven times in the first 20 minutes.

Grill and Mark Mitchell hit 3-point jumpers to keep Missouri rolling into the second half with a 9-2 push for a 63-33 lead.

Pacific could get no closer than 26 points during the rest of the game.