Dec. 11, 2005
COLUMBIA, Mo. - Every Mizzou player posted a rebound, and for the fifth time in the last six games five Tigers scored in double figures, as Mizzou won its sixth straight Sunday in an 88-34 decision over Nicholls State. The winning streak ties the longest of Cindy Stein's eight-year tenure in Columbia.
Junior forward EeTisha Riddle (O'Fallon, Ill. / O'Fallon HS) led all scorers with 15 points, yet every Tiger contributed in holding the Lady Colonels to the 10th-lowest scoring output in Mizzou history. It's also the fewest points an opponent has had against Mizzou (7-2) since 1999, when Centenary scored 31.
Senior guard LaToya Bond (Urbana, Ill. / Urbana HS) flirted with a triple-double with her 11 points, game-high eight assists and seven rebounds in 22 minutes of action. Junior forward Tiffany Brooks (Leavenworth, Kan. / Leavenworth HS) added career highs of eight rebounds and seven assists to go with four points; they led a Tiger offense that had a season-high 26 assists against just six turnovers.
Junior center Tamika Jackson (Galveston, Texas / Ball HS / Chipola JC) came off the bench and nearly had a double-double of her own, as she had season-highs of 11 points and eight rebounds in just 15 minutes of action. No Tiger played more than 22 minutes, but eight played 17 or more. In all, 19 different individual career or season-high marks were set, and another 15 were tied.
Jamie Octave led Nicholls State (1-5) with 11 points.
"We did a lot of good things today. They were very focused and executed well offensively. I'm excited about our shooting today, but what I'm really excited about was our defense," Head Coach Cindy Stein said. "We wanted to hold them to 35 points, and we did that. We didn't want any of their players to get into double figures, and one of them did, but we held her to one point in the second half. We made sure that our defense got us going today."
Mizzou scored the first 14 points of the game, and held Nicholls State without a field goal until Jamie Octave's 3-pointer with 13 minutes, 59 seconds remained in the first half. A 3-point play from Katherine Plummer brought the Lady Colonels within single digits (18-9) for the first time since the start of the game, yet the Tigers quickly pushed the lead back to double digits.
As a measure of their dominance inside, Mizzou had already scored 18 points in the paint before NSU scored their first, on a Tarin Seely layup, with 9:07 left in the half. By that point, the Tigers had a 26-13 lead, and had made 45 percent of their shots while holding Nicholls State to just 32 percent.
Junior forward Carlynn Savant (Euless, Texas / Trinity HS), on the flip side, made each of her first four shots - including a pair of 3-pointers - in hitting double figures in scoring in the first 13 minutes of the game. She finished with 12 on 5-of-6 shooting.
Bond and Riddle joined Savant in double-figure scoring within 90 seconds of the start of the second half, which MU began with a 49-21 lead.
The Tigers are off for final exams until next Sunday, Dec. 18, when they tip off against Southern Illinois at 6 p.m.. Tickets are available by visiting the Mizzou Arena Box Office, calling 1-800-CAT-PAWS (884-PAWS in mid-Missouri) or going online to www.mutigers.com.
NOTES: Senior center Christelle N'Garsanet (Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire / Illinois Central College) was Mizzou's fifth double-figure scorer; she had 14 to go with a game-high nine rebounds ... Brooks more than doubled her previous career high in assists; she had dished out three on six different occasions over the last two years ... Jackson sank her first field goal as a Tiger on a baby hook with 5:25 left in the first half ... freshman forward K-Kay Pickens (Houston, Texas / Madison HS) hit her first two field goals - both of them 3-pointers - as a Tiger. She finished with six points and two rebounds and played the final four minutes of the game ... MU won nine straight in the 1999-2000 season.