March 9, 2004
DALLAS - Junior center Megan Roney (Independence, Mo. / Truman HS) led four Missouri women in double-figure scoring with a career-high 15, and the No. 7-seed Tigers secured their first Big 12 Tournament win since 2001 with a 75-52 first-round decision over No. 10-seed Oklahoma State Tuesday night at Reunion Arena.
With the win, Mizzou (17-11) will face No. 2-seed and national No. 8-ranked Kansas State Wednesday night at 6 p.m. in a game that will be televised by FOX Sports Net. [FSN affiliates in the Chicago, Midwest, North, Northwest, Southwest, and West2 regions will air the game LIVE.] In the two games preceding Missouri's, No. 9-seed Iowa State beat No. 8 Nebraska, 63-52, while No. 5 Baylor knocked out No. 12 Kansas by am 86-71 count.
Senior forward Stretch James (Columbus, Ohio / Northland HS / Tyler [Texas] JC) had 14 points, nine rebounds and a career-high five assists; senior guard Tracy Lozier (Leawood, Kan. / Blue Valley North HS) added 13 points with three 3-pointers; and sophomore LaToya Bond (Urbana, Ill. / Urbana HS) threw in 11 points and six assists.
Senior All-America candidate Evan Unrau (Fort Collins, Colo. / Rocky Mountain HS) was held to a season-low-tying seven points, yet picked up the slack with a career-high-tying seven assists. In all, Missouri had 23 assists on its 31 baskets - the most since the Tigers had 25 against Miami (Ohio) on Jan. 2.
"I'm very proud of our kids; they really came out ready to play," Head Coach Cindy Stein said. "It showed when Megan came out and hit the three; that signaled that we were ready to play and time could not run fast enough for us."
The Tigers started out hot by hitting both of their first baskets - a 3-pointer by Roney and a 16-foot jumper by senior guard MyEsha Perkins (Detroit, Mich. / Oak Park HS / Trinity Valley [Texas] JC). Bond then hit a 16-footer of her own, and found James in fastbreak traffic for a layup, a 9-0 Mizzou lead, and an OSU timeout with 16 minutes, 29 seconds left in the first half.
Missouri held the Cowgirls without a field goal until Lori Allen sank a putback with 13:45 left to pull OSU within 13-3. Mizzou answered with a quick 7-3 run, capped by a 3-pointer by Lozier off a fastbreak. Missouri was doing an excellent job of moving the ball around; seven different Tigers scored in the first 8-1/2 minutes.
Sophomore center Christelle N'Garsanet (Abidjan, Ivory Coast / Illinois Central College) had five of MU's points in a 13-3 run. She canned a jumper, then after an Unrau turnaround in the lane, had a bucket and free throw on subsequent possessions. Lozier and Bond then hit 3-pointers to five Mizzou a 33-11 lead with 8:20 to play in the first.
OSU's Nina Stone, who had 30 points in the Cowgirls' regular-season finale vs. Baylor, didn't get her first basket until 6:24 remained in the first. Yet that keyed a quick 7-0 Oklahoma State run that pulled the Cowgirls to within 15 (33-18). The Tigers went on another 8-2 run in the last 1:54, though, to take a solid 48-26 lead at the half. Missouri shot over 65 percent (19-of-29) in the first 20 minutes, and had 14 assists to just five turnovers.
The start of the second half was a personal contest between Roney and OSU's Eliz Gomes, who made their first three baskets of the second half. Roney made four straight for the Tigers, though, to push the lead to 25 (58-33) with 16:08 left. Missouri would stretch the lead to as large as 29 (66-37) with 8:33 to play.
Oklahoma State got the Tigers in foul trouble over the next 10 minutes, getting 12 shots at the free-throw line. Along with an 8-0 run, that allowed them to pull within 20 at 68-48. Lozier snapped that streak with her third 3-pointer, though, and the Tigers cruised the rest of the way.