Feb. 26, 2003
NORMAN, Okla. - Maria Villaroel tied her career high with 31 points, and the Oklahoma Sooners took advantage of a 36-8 disparity in free-throw attempts to register a 74-69 win over Missouri on Wednesday night at the Lloyd Noble Center.
With the win, Oklahoma (17-10, 8-6 Big 12) takes sole control of fifth place in the league, while Missouri (13-12, 7-7) falls to sixth.
Juniors Evan Unrau (Fort Collins, Colo. / Rocky Mountain HS) and Tracy Lozier (Leawood, Kan. / Blue Valley North HS) led the Tigers with 17 points apiece, while Unrau added a team-high eight rebounds.
After Oklahoma made a free throw to open the scoring, Missouri stormed out to a 6-3 lead on the strength of four points from Unrau. She and Lozier then continued the Tigers' opening success by hitting back-to-back 3-pointers and boosting Mizzou's lead to 12-5 just 4 minutes, 21 seconds into the contest.
Oklahoma countered with a run of its own, and Maria Villaroel made a 3-point play with 13:00 left in the first to pull the Sooners within 16-14.
Junior forward Stretch James (Columbus, Ohio / Northland HS / Tyler [Texas] JC) hit a soft banker from the left side, and Unrau and junior forward Terianne Wolford (Nixa, Mo. / Nixa HS) each had 3-pointers to push the Tiger advantage back to six at 26-20. In all, Mizzou made six of its nine first-half 3-pointers. Despite holding Oklahoma without a field goal for the final 5:23 of the first half, the Sooners converted on all 10 of their free-throw attempts in that span to give Missouri just a 42-38 lead at the halftime break.
The Tigers hit 16-of-34 from the field overall in the first 20 minutes (47.1 percent), compared to 42.9 percent for the Sooners. Oklahoma had a decided advantage at the free-throw line, making 14 of 18 charity tosses while Mizzou made all four of its attempts.
Lozier was called for an intentional foul for allegedly tripping Dionnah Jackson early in the second half, then Lozier canned a trey herself to put Mizzou up 47-42. Yet Oklahoma went on a 10-0 run over the next 3-plus minutes to take the lead for the first time since an opening-game free throw.
With the Tigers down 56-51 at the under-12-minute timeout, Wolford hit what appeared to be a 3-point shot. After played was halted following a Sooner traveling violation, the lead official reviewed the video for several minutes before granting the trey. The Tigers seemed to seize the momentum from that lengthy delay, going on a quick 7-0 run capped by an Unrau baseline jumper to regain the lead at 58-56 with 8:53 left.
With the Tigers down four (66-62), the team drew a shot-clock violation on the Sooners, and senior guard Kerensa Barr (West Plains, Mo. / West Plains HS) took a charge on the next possession. Minutes later, after Unrau fouled out in an attempt to draw a charge with the Tigers down four, Chelsi Welch made one of two free throws to make it 70-66 with 25.4 seconds left. After a Missouri miss and two more Villaroel free throws - she made all 11 of her attempts on the night - Barr banked in a desperation 30-footer with 1.8 seconds left to pull the Tigers within three before Welch made the final charity tosses of the night.
"I give credit to our kids for hanging in there and battling, because it's horrible that they had to fight against that kind of disparity from the free-throw line," Head Coach Cindy Stein said. "It's unfortunate because we really needed this game, and it definitely shows what the kids had to go through. There were times we lost our poise, but I was so proud of the way this team battled."
Missouri closes the regular season with a pair of home games: this Saturday, March 1, against Kansas in a 6 p.m. Mizzou Sports Network statewide telecast, and Wednesday, March 5, against Texas A&M. For ticket information, call the Mizzou Athletic Ticket Office at 1-800-CAT-PAWS (573-884-PAWS in mid-Missouri).