KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Like he has so many times in the past, Missouri senior Clarence Gilbert unloaded on Iowa State making eight three pointers en route to a 79-59 victory in the first round of the Big 12 tournament.

“I thought that we really hooked a tiger, if you will, early,” ISU head coach Larry Eustachy said. “Just too many points too fast. We obviously really struggled early.”

Jake Sullivan, Iowa State’s second leading scorer, left about halfway through the first half with an eye injury, and the Cyclones never recovered. Sullivan returned in the second half with his left eye completely shut.

“I was able to play but I couldn’t shoot; I didn’t have any depth perception in the second half,” Sullivan said. “But I could try and be leader in the second half to this team.”

Along with Gilbert’s strong shooting performance, junior Kareem Rush did his fair share of damage scoring 17 points. Senior forward Arthur Johnson also pitched in 17 along with eight rebounds.

The Tigers jumped ahead early in the game and were leading 44-28 at the half.

“They were clicking on all cylinders and the deficit was just too much for us to overcome,” Tyray Pearson said. “It’s real difficult when you fall behind to a good team like Missouri.”

Pearson ended his career at Iowa State by scoring 19 points and grabbing seven rebounds.

“Obviously I would have liked to get the victory,” Pearson said. “I thought I played in spurts this game, I thought I could have had a better game. There’s nothing I can do about it now that the game’s over so I just have to go out with my head up and just wish luck on my teammates and I hope they do well in the future.”

Iowa State struggled to take of the ball as they turned it over 23 times in the game and allowed Missouri to shoot 49 percent from the field.

“When you’re not getting stops and you’re turning the ball over, you’re not going to win,” Shane Power said. “It’s not that we’re not playing hard, it’s that we weren’t thinking when were playing and at this level it is going to cost you.”

Jared Homan recorded four points and three blocks in the game and Omar Bynum finished the season with a strong performance, scoring 17 points and nabbing seven rebounds. Bynum was the Cyclones’ biggest spark in the first half scoring 11 points on five-of-five shooting from the field.

Along with turning the ball over a lot, Iowa State only shot 41.5 percent from the field and was just two of eight from long range.

“Our offense kind of struggled,” Sullivan said. “We’re used to our defense playing a certain way and things got messed up a little bit. But there is nothing we can do about that now.”

Missouri dominated in all aspects of the game as they outscored the Cyclones 34-28 in the paint and got 21 points off of ISU turnovers.

“We just broke down an awful lot,” Eustachy said. “But we got beat by a good team. It wasn’t as much as it was Missouri.”

Iowa State ended its season 4-13 in the Big 12 , 12-19 overall.

“It’s been a real long year for us,” Eustachy said. “I don’t know if I’ve had a team overachieve like this in all honesty. I’m really proud of our guys, like Tyray finished it off strong, finished his career off strong, at least trying. It was a good year in a lot of ways; we all learned a lot.”

Box score

MISSOURI 79, IOWA ST. 59

IOWA ST. (12-19)

Bynum 7-10 2-5 17, Power 3-11 0-0 6, Pearson 5-13 9-12 19, Sullivan 2-4 0-0 4, Morgan 1-4 0-0 2, Fries 0-0 0-0 0, Jefferson 3-7 0-0 7, Homan 1-3 2-2 4, Skogland 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 22-53 13-19 59.

MISSOURI (21-10)

Bryant 2-4 0-0 4, Paulding 3-11 0-0 6, Johnson 7-14 3-5 17, Gilbert 9-15 0-0 26, Rush 7-12 2-2 17, Stokes 1-2 2-2 5, Kiernan 0-0 0-0 0, John 0-0 0-0 0, Gage 1-1 0-1 2, Kroenke 0-0 0-0 0, Ferguson 0-1 0-0 0, Echols 1-3 0-0 2. Totals 31-63 7-10 79.

Halftime-Missouri 44, Iowa St. 28. 3-Point goals-Iowa St. 2-8 (Bynum 1-1, Power 0-2, Sullivan 0-1, Morgan 0-2, Jefferson 1-2), Missouri 10-21 (Bryant 0-1, Paulding 0-3, Gilbert 8-11, Rush 1-5, Stokes 1-1). Fouled out-None. Rebounds-Iowa St. 35 (Bynum 7, Pearson 7), Missouri 34 (Gage 9). Assists-Iowa St. 8 (Morgan 3, Sullivan 3), Missouri 13 (Paulding 4). Total fouls-Iowa St. 16, Missouri 19. A-18,848.