Jan. 1, 2005

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MISSOURI (5-5) vs. Saint Louis (1-11)
Sunday, January 2, 2005 - Columbia, Mo.

TIPOFF: 1:00 p.m. CST.
ARENA: Norm Stewart Court at Mizzou Arena (15,061). Opened in October 2004. MU is 283-104 (.731) all-time at home, including 2-2 at Mizzou Arena. The Tigers are 266-65 (.804) all-time at home vs. unranked non-conference teams.
RADIO: KFRU-AM 1400, KLIK-AM 1240 (David Lile, play-by-play/Gary Link, color) and available to affiliates of the Tiger Radio Network. Also available on the Internet at www.mutigers.com.
TV: None.
SERIES: Missouri leads, 15-0, including 7-0 at home. The series began in 1976, and resumed its current annual status in 1999.
RANKINGS: Neither team is receiving votes.
COACHES:
      Missouri: Cindy Stein (Illinois '84), 106-84 at MU (seventh season) and 171-109 overall (10th season).
      Saint Louis: Jill Pizzotti (SEMO '89), 110-155 at SLU and overall (10th season).

WOMEN SET TO CLOSE OUT NON-CONF. SEASON VS. SLU
      The University of Missouri women's basketball team (5-5), fresh off a dazzling 58-57 win at Miami (Ohio) on New Year's Eve, have a quick turnaround for their first game of 2005 as they host Saint Louis University (1-11) on Sunday afternoon at Mizzou Arena. It's the Tigers' final non-conference tuneup before starting Big 12 Conference play Wednesday night vs. Oklahoma State.

THE SLU SERIES
      Mizzou has won all 15 meetings in the all-time series with Saint Louis, including last season's 65-62 nailbiter in the Gateway City. Of MU's longest-running non-conference series, the 15 meetings rank fourth all-time behind fellow in-state schools SMS, Northwest Missouri, and Central Missouri. While the Tigers have dominated the series historically, the last five meetings have been close overall: Mizzou's average margin of victory has been just 9.4 points, and its largest win has been by 13 points.

SCOUTING THE BILLIKENS
      The team Missouri will face Sunday in no way resembles last year's squad; none of SLU's expected available players played in last year's game. Only one player who played in last year's game - guard Yanique Javois - is on this year's roster, and she is out indefinitely with a left knee injury. Newcomers have scored all but 72 points this year, accounting for 89.4 percent of the Billinkens' scoring.
      SLU is led by freshman G Mia Johnson, who is averaging a solid 18.9 points per game - the third-highest-scoring freshman in the country as of last week. She is the other Billiken other than Javois scoring in double figures, though junior F Marquita McFarland is a point shy (9.9 ppg).

SUNDAY IS MIDDLE OF FOUR-IN-EIGHT STRETCH
      The Tigers ended a near-record 13-day layoff with the win in Oxford, and also started a hectic stretch that sees Mizzou play four games in eight days. The third game comes Wednesday, with the Tigers hosting Nebraska on Saturday night.

LAST TIME OUT: MIZZOU 58, MIAMI (OHIO) 57 Sophomore F Tiffany Brooks hit a turnaround jumper with just 5.9 seconds left to lead Missouri to a 58-57 win at Miami (Ohio) in a New Year's Eve matinee at Millett Hall. It was the Tigers' first road win of the season.

BROOKS MAKING A SPLASH FOR TIGERS Now eligible after sitting out the last year (two semesters) under NCAA transfer rules, sophomore G Tiffany Brooks (Leavenworth, Kan. / Leavenworth HS / Kansas State) is certainly making good use of her time. She started her first game eligible against Stanford and had six points and three rebounds. As stated above, Brooks canned the winning jumper in Mizzou's win at Miami on Friday, but that was just the final piece of an impressive performance. She had a team- and career-high 16 points, and added two rebounds, two assists and two steals. She also created defensive stops for the Tigers in holding the RedHawks to just 30-percent shooting for the day.

YOU SURE THESE ARE FREE? One reason that Brooks' heroics were necessary were because the Tigers made just three of their 11 free-throw attempts, a paltry 27.3-percent margin. That is MU's lowest single-game free-throw percentage in the last five years. For the season, the Tigers are averaging 63.8 percent from the line.