University of Missouri
Nebraska
Missouri Defeats Nebraska on Road, 65-58
1/27/2001 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Jan. 27, 2001
Lincoln, Neb. -The University of Missouri women's basketball team is 13-5 with a 4-3 Big 12 Conference record after defeating the Nebraska Cornhuskers 65-58. The win is Missouri's second over Nebraska since 1991 and the first victory in the Bob Devaney Center since 1990 when the Tigers defeated the Huskers 64-60. Nebraska still leads the series however, 30-20.
Much of the first period was a neck-and-neck battle. Senior Amanda Lassiter started the game with a block and a jumper before going on to score 20 points in the half. The Tigers and Huskers kept pace with a 2-point game for the majority of the period, until Missouri rallied for a six-point run with six minutes to go. MU kept the momentum to leave the half with a 40-27 lead. The competition was extremely heated resulting in 24 fouls, including three technical fouls in the first 20 minutes.
The Tigers struggled at the beginning of the second half allowing the Huskers to post nine points, while only scoring two. Missouri played solid defense in the game rebuilding a solid lead that it would not relinquish. The foul trouble continued in the second period, with two Nebraska players fouling out. Jointly, the teams committed 23 personal fouls.
Lassiter led the Tigers with 27 points, nine rebounds and six blocks. The Tigers knocked down 12 blocks overall to set a Missouri single-game record. Lassiter also advances as the fifth leading blocker in school history with 120 career blocks. She is the only Tiger in the Top 10 that has set her career mark in under four years. Senior Marlena Williams played a solid game on the inside scoring eight-points and recording three blocks. Freshman Evan Unrau had seven rebounds and sophomore Wannette Smith tied her career-mark pulling down eight boards.
" We wanted to control the tempo and not let the crowd get to us. We just wanted to play Missouri basketball: play tough defense and get some stops, come down, run through our plays and be consistent. We kept our composure and just played basketball. I don't think we let the crowd get to us. You could see that when they went on a run and we were still able to calm it down," Lassiter said.
Head Coach Cindy Stein
"I felt our defense was strong and we challenged every shot. Nebraska didn't shoot well, but they were controlling the rebounds and that's more of our concern. We need to make sure they don't get to many offensive rebounds. We're just lucky they didn't put those in."
"Nebraska started off extremely well in the first half. I thought they were very confident coming in and they had a swagger to them. I think if the game went on, when they weren't hitting their shots they lost confidence."
"Amanda is a very quality player. I've said before that I think she is one of the best players in the country. What makes Amanda so good is the fact that she doesn't get wrapped up in the scoring. The scoring is a bonus for her. She is very defensive oriented. She likes rebounding, the steals, the assists and you see every category. She fills up every row on the stat sheet. She makes it a lot of fun to coach."
"There was a lot emotion in this game, but that is life in the Big 12. The kids are intense. Both teams are scrambling. It's a war. I think both teams really wanted the game. I think the officials handled it very well. They controlled it, got things settled down and had a very clean second half."
