University of Missouri
Illinois
Illinois Women Squeeze Past Mizzou, 70-67
12/21/2002 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Dec. 21, 2002
ST. LOUIS - Angelina Williams led four Illinois players in double figures to help the Fighting Illini squeeze out a 70-67 win over Missouri on Saturday afternoon in the annual Busch Braggin' Rights game, held at Savvis Center in St. Louis.
Junior forward Evan Unrau (Fort Collins, Colo. / Rocky Mountain HS) led the Tigers (4-4) with 14 points, while junior forward Stretch James (Columbus, Ohio / Northland HS / Tyler [Texas] JC added 12 points and a game-high eight rebounds. Freshman guard LaToya Bond (Urbana, Ill. / Urbana HS), who was playing against her hometown's university for the first time, finished with career highs of 11 points and six rebounds.
Tiffanie Guthrie had 17 points, Jere Issenmann had 11 and Cindy Dallas added 10 for the Illini (7-2).
"I'm really proud of our players. It was a hard fought battle," said head coach Cindy Stein. "I thought we played a very good 35 minutes. Unfortunately, the game is 40 minutes long. We're going to learn from this, and that's the key to our team this year. I see some great things with this team."
The game was a see-saw affair that saw six lead changes and three ties. Mizzou held a slim lead for the middle portion of the game before Illinois took the lead for good on a jumper by Guthrie with 6 minutes, 9 seconds left.
After missing four shots on the game's opening possession, the Tigers proceeded to make six of their next seven shots in opening up a 14-11 lead with 15:19 left. Coming out of that media timeout, the Illini made four straight baskets for a 19-14 lead with 12:44 to play in the first.
The Illini moved the lead to 23-16 when James and Bond were inserted into the game with less than 10 minutes left in the half. James and Bond made the game's next two field goals, and the Tigers later went on an 8-0 run to regain the lead at 32-28 with 2:45 remaining. The capper of the first half came when Bond swished a 12-foot runner as the halftime buzzer sounded, giving Mizzou a 38-33 lead at the break.
After Mizzou called timeout less than two minutes into the second half, junior guard MyEsha Perkins (Detroit, Mich. / Oak Park HS / Trinity Valley [Texas] JC) made the Tigers' next three baskets, and senior forward Wannette Smith (Overland Park, Kan. / Blue Valley North HS) scored four straight points to keep UI at bay.
With her fifth assist of the first half, senior guard Kerensa Barr (West Plains, Mo. / West Plains HS) moved past Dee-Dee Polk for second place on MU's all-time assist chart. Barr finished the game with eight assists and now has 376 for her career. She added eight points and five rebounds.
The Tigers will take the next eight days off from competition in advance of their next game against another Big Ten Conference opponent; Mizzou plays at Iowa next Sunday, Dec. 29, at 2 p.m.
