Feb. 12, 2003
COLUMBIA, Mo. - Junior forward Evan Unrau (Fort Collins, Colo. / Rocky Mountain HS) scored a season-high 26 points to lead the Missouri women to a 70-57 win Wednesday night and a season sweep of Iowa State for the first time since 1995. Unrau's 26 are the most by a Tiger this season, one game after her 23 points at Nebraska was the same.
Unrau was 10-of-15 from the field, tying her career high for field goals; she added eight rebounds, five assists and three steals in leading four players in double-figure scoring for Missouri (12-9, 6-4 Big 12).
Lisa Kriener led Iowa State (9-12, 4-6) with 16 points, while Anne O'Neil had 11. Lindsey Wilson, who came into the game averaging a Big 12-best 21.3 points per game in league play, was held to 13 points.
"I'm proud of this team. I liked the way we played," Stein said. "It wasn't real pretty at times, but we gutted it out. We had some great plays, great defensive play by Tracy Lozier on Lindsey Wilson, and Evan Unrau hit some big, big shots for us when we really needed them."
After Kriener started the scoring with a putback of a Cyclone miss, the Tigers went on a 13-2 run covering the next 5 minutes. Missouri's ball distribution was running on all cylinders, as every starter scored during that run.
Junior forward Terianne Wolford (Nixa, Mo. / Nixa HS), whose long-distance shooting helped the Tigers break the Cyclones' zone in Mizzou's 31-point win in Ames last month, hit a 3-pointer to put the Tigers up 19-8 with 11:16 left in the half. That also opened up Mizzou's inside game, as the Tigers out-scored Iowa State by an 18-6 margin in the first 20 minutes. The Tigers' largest lead came twice late in the half, including when Unrau hit a jumper with 1:23 left for the final points of the half and a 38-22 lead.
Missouri's defense harassed the Cyclones into shooting just 34.8 percent (8-of-23) in the first half, while the Tigers' offense clicked to the tune of 56.7 percent (17-of-30) from the field. In addition, Mizzou had an excellent 12-to-6 assist-to-turnover ratio at the half.
After a Kriener layup and a Wilson 3-pointer pulled the Cyclones to within 11 at 38-27 coming out of the locker room, Missouri countered with a quick 6-0 run that was capped with 15:00 left on an Unrau baseline jumper. Yet Iowa State started hitting their shots, and Kriener tossed in a layup to close the gap to just seven points (50-43) with 7:31 remaining.
After Head Coach Cindy Stein called a second 30-second timeout to calm her team, Unrau and Lozier sandwiched 3-pointers around an O'Neil jump to keep the Cyclones at bay.
The Tigers hit the road for the annual Border War clash with Kansas this Saturday, Feb. 15, in a game that will be broadcast on many FOX Sports Net regional affiliates. Tipoff is at 1 p.m. at Allen Field House; check your local listings for the channel and time in your area. Mizzou's next home game is a week from Wednesday (Feb. 19) at 7 p.m. against No. 5-ranked Kansas State. For ticket information, call 1-800-CAT-PAWS (573-884-PAWS in mid-Missouri).