March 8, 2005
KANSAS CITY - The Missouri women held Kansas to just a field goal in the final six and a half minutes, and hit seven-of-eight free throws in the final minute to register a 62-57 win in the first round of the 2005 Phillips 66 Big 12 Conference Women's Basketball Tournament, played Tuesday afternoon at Municipal Auditorium.
In winning the first-ever matchup in Kansas City between the rivals, the Tigers (11-17) advance to a noon matchup Wednesday afternoon against top-seeded and No. 6-ranked Baylor (24-3) in a game that will be televised nationally by FSN.
Junior center Christelle N'Garsanet (Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire / Illinois Central College) led the Tigers with 19 points, and added nine rebounds and a career-high-tying four steals. Sophomore forward EeTisha Riddle (O'Fallon, Ill. / O'Fallon HS) threw in 14 points and eight rebounds, and junior guard LaToya Bond (Urbana, Ill. / Urbana HS) had 12 points, a career-high nine rebounds and five assists. In addition, the women earned half a point for Missouri in the MU-KU Border Showdown, presented by the Midwest Ford Dealers.
"I'm just very proud of our team. They really hung in there," Head Coach Cindy Stein said. "We knew that rebounding was going to be critical for us, taking care of the ball. Those two things we really emphasized. Our kids really stepped up and got stops when we needed them, really made some big plays. Hitting those free throws at the end kind of just really helped solidify things. I'm just really proud of them."
The game started at a frenetic pace, with the first dead ball not coming until the first media timeout with 15 minutes, 20 seconds left in the first half. Kansas shot well from the start, hitting seven of their first nine field goals. A Crystal Kemp left hook capped a 6-0 run for the Jayhawks and gave them a 15-8 lead.
Bond countered with a 3-pointer, yet KU scored six of the game's next eight points to extend its lead to eight (21-13) with 11:30 to play. Missouri came back out of the next media timeout, though, and scored on four of its next five possessions to pull within two (22-20) with 8:27 to go in the half.
The two teams traded runs over the next five minutes, with Missouri answering a 7-0 KU spurt with a 6-0 run of its own before Kemp got two more buckets for a 33-28 Jayhawk lead at the 4-minute media timeout. The Tigers scored the final six points of the half, taking a 34-33 lead with 16 seconds to play on an N'Garsanet layup that was set up by a nice feed from senior center Megan Roney (Independence, Mo. / Truman HS).
Sophomore forward Carlynn Savant (Euless, Texas / Trinity HS) hit a baby hook to start the second-half scoring, and sophomore forward Tiffany Brooks (Leavenworth, Kan. / Leavenworth HS / Kansas State) found N'Garsanet underneath on the fastbreak for a 38-33 lead and a Kansas timeout with 17:14 to go. Savant hit another open jumper for a seven-point lead before Erica Hallman, Crystal Kemp and Aquanita Burras scored - the final on a steal and coast-to-coast layup - to pull the Jayhawks within one.
After a Bond 3-pointer, KU scored on back-to-back trips to take their first lead since the end of the first half, and the teams traded the lead for the next nine possessions spanning more than six minutes. Hallman ended the streak with a 3-pointer that put Kansas up four (55-51) with 6:43 left in the game.
Only an N'Garsanet bucket after getting fouled entered the score book in the next three minutes, as both teams went cold. Bond tied the game with 2:39 left on a drive down the right side, and following a pair of defensive stops, made a pair of free throws to take a 57-55 lead with 54.9 seconds left. That set in motion the chance for the Tigers to ice the game at the line.