University of Missouri
UMKC
Tigers Down UMKC In Opener
11/16/2001 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Nov. 16, 2001
Final Stats?|? Notes
KANSAS CITY - The University of Missouri women's basketball team used a 20-4 run to close the first half and roll toward a 67-48 win over UMKC Friday night at the Swinney Recreation Center. The win, the Tigers' first of the season, was MU's sixth-straight season-opening win.
The Tigers were trailing 20-15 after UMKC's Starla Brown scored with six minutes and 47 seconds remaining in the first half. MU used eight points by Melanie Fisher and six points by Evan Unrau to go with strong defense to close the half with a 35-24 lead. Unrau scored on a putback to give Mizzou a 23-22 lead with 4:37 left.
"I don't think we were caught off-guard at all," said MU head coach Cindy Stein. "If you have been watched any of our recent practices at all, you know we need to get ourselves playing together. We knew it would be a good challenge for us and it was. We started to hit some shots. We had been getting good looks but we didn't put them down. When you do that, you start to get tight and we needed to work through that."
Missouri sank all 10 of its first-half free throws and eventually made 23-of-28 free throws in the contest.
"I thought our free-throw shooting was really good in the first half," said Stein. "Our goal is to get to the free-throw line. That's a very important stat, especially to our team. When you press, you need to get to the free-throw line to get your breath."
Kerensa Barr scored nine of her game-high 15 points in the first half while Unrau and Fisher each scored eight points in the opening 20 minutes. Fisher would finish with 14 points while Unrau and Natalie Bright added 12 and 11 points, respectively. Barr also led the Tigers in rebounds (nine) and assists (six). The nine rebounds tied Barr's career-high mark of nine against Baylor (2/17/01). Barr tied Evan Unrau and Tracy Lozier for the team lead with three steals.
"Melanie Fisher is a great rebounder," said Stein. "She also keeps things going, one of them who do all of the little things, it opens it up for the other players."
The Tigers did not make a field goal for the first five minutes of the second half but remained in the lead. Missouri broke out of its scoring drought in the game's final 10 minutes as it scored 24 points. Every Tiger but Lauren Podratz scored in the game.
Missouri continues its run of in-state competition as the Tigers will play Southwest Missouri State Monday at 7 p.m.
