University of Missouri
Mississippi Valley State
N'Garsanet Pours in 29 to Lead Mizzou Women
12/3/2004 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Dec. 3, 2004
COLUMBIA, Mo. - Junior center Christelle N'Garsanet (Abidjan, Ivory Coast / Illinois Central College) registered her first career double-double to lead the Missouri women to a 79-53 win over Mississippi Valley State in the first round of the State Farm Tiger Classic, played Friday night at Mizzou Arena. The win sets up a title matchup Saturday night at 7 p.m. vs. Eastern Michigan.
N'Garsanet poured in a career-high-shattering 29 points to go with a career-high 13 rebounds; her previous career-high of 15 points was set last Saturday vs. Providence. It is also the single-highest total, men's or women's, in the short six-game history of Mizzou Arena.
"I was excited (about my performace), but I was more excited because it got the team a lot of good looks," N'Garsanet said.
She picked up her second foul shortly after assisting on a jumper by senior center Megan Roney (Independence, Mo. / Truman HS) just 5 minutes, 33 seconds into the game that gave Missouri a 14-7 lead. With N'Garsanet on the bench with just five points, the Tigers out-scored the Delta Devilettes just 24-23 the rest of the half as Missouri (4-2) took a 38-30 lead into the locker room.
In the second half, N'Garsanet went to work, going 9-of-15 from the field for 24 points. She added 11 rebounds and a pair of steals, and went 6-of-7 from the foul line without committing a foul of her own in her 17 minutes on the floor.
Junior guard LaToya Bond (Urbana, Ill. / Urbana HS) chipped in 20 points on 9-of-13 shooting, while adding eight rebounds and seven assists. Sophomore forward Carlynn Savant (Euless, Texas / Trinity HS) nearly got her first career double-double, posting nine points and 11 rebounds.
The Tigers overcame a paltry 38.6 percent shooting night - including just 4-of-21 from 3-point range - by committing a season-low nine turnovers. Mizzou forced that many against Mississippi Valley (2-1), while the Delta Devilettes had an additional nine on their own.
"We didn't have a lot of bounce defensively, because we didn't have whole lot of information on them," Head Coach Cindy Stein said. "But I thought we had several good looks at the basket. Tomorrow night, we've got to come out ready to play or we're going to get blown out."
In the night's first game, Eastern Michigan fought off a game-high 20 points from UMKC's Katie Houlehan to cruise to a 69-44 win. EMU's Kristen Gilmore led the Eagles (5-0) with 19 points, while Ryan Coleman and Nikki Knapp combined for 24 points and 17 rebounds. UMKC (1-4) will face MVSU in the consolation game at 5 p.m.
