University of Missouri
Southwest Baptist
Women's Basketball Earns 80-50 Exhibition Win
11/7/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Nov. 7, 2008
COLUMBIA, Mo. - The University of Missouri women's basketball team tipped off the 2008-09 season with an 80-50 exhibition victory over Southwest Baptist on Friday night at Mizzou Arena. Senior Alyssa Hollins led the Tigers with 21 points on 9-of-18 shooting from the floor.
Junior Jessra Johnson and sophomore Shakara Jones joined Hollins in double figures with 17 and 11 points, respectively, while they each pulled down a team high seven rebounds. Sophomore RaeShara Brown narrowly missed hitting double figures with nine points.
"I think we have a group that plays extremely well together," Missouri head Coach Cindy Stein said. "I thought our defense finally got going, I'm glad we didn't let anyone on their team get double figures. We're still a work in progress but I feel good about what I saw."
Sophomore Shakara Jones started strong and scored Mizzou's first six points of the evening to give the Tigers an early 6-2 lead with 16:39 on the clock. With the Bearcats holding a slim 7-6 advantage two minutes later, Hollins reeled off eight straight Missouri points, on a layup and two threes, for a 16-10 Tiger advantage.
The Tigers used a 16-3 run to build their biggest lead of the first half, 35-19, with 1:50 on the clock, capped by a layup from freshman Christine Flores off a pass from Johnson.
With 22 seconds left in the half, freshman Bailey Gee grabbed an offensive rebound and made the putback to give Missouri a 40-23 lead. The Tiger defense held tough in the waning seconds and did not allow Southwest Baptist to get a shot off to send the Tigers into the break with a 17-point advantage.
The two squads played even to start the second half but Mizzou began to pull away on five straight points from Johnson to give the Tigers a 63-38 lead with 7:29 remaining. A layup from freshman BreAnna Brock with 1:23 left gave Missouri its largest lead of the contest, 78-44, before the game ended with Mizzou on top 80-50.
The Tigers officially open the 2008-09 campaign on Friday, Nov. 14 at home against South Dakota State at 6:30 p.m. Mizzou then travels to Champaign, Ill., for a 8:30 p.m. contest on Wednesday, Nov. 19 against Illinois.
