FIVE ALIVE
      This season, Mizzou is making a habit of distributing the ball among everyone on the floor. In six of the last eight games - all Tiger wins - five players have scored in double figures. Contrast that with last year, when the Tigers did so just once.

BOND... LaToya Bond!
      This may be the biggest case of "burying the lede" in these notes, but senior guard LaToya Bond has done a heck of a job quarterbacking the Tigers this season.
      As noted above, she's led the Tiger offense to have five scorers in double figures six times over Mizzou's eight-game winning streak. She has been a primary part of that success, scoring in double figures in each of Mizzou's 11 games this season, incluidng four times over 20 points.
      On Dec. 11 against Nicholls State, Bond had 11 points to go with a season-high seven rebounds, and a near-career-high eight assists, to come thisclose to a triple-double.
      Bond already has two tournament MVP awards under her belt this season, and is Mizzou's leading scorer at 16.6 points per game. She has a Big 12 Conference-leading 3.0 steals per game, and is among the Big 12 leaders in six different categories, including - at 5-foot-10 - blocks!

(NOT) TURNING OVER A NEW LEAF?
      Mizzou did its best job of ball-handling, by far, in years against Nicholls State on Dec. 11. The Tigers had 26 assists, which ties the third-highest total in the last six years.
      To counter that, Mizzou had a ridiculously low six turnovers against the Lady Colonels. That's the fewest in a single game in at least the last six years; in fact, the Tigers have had single-digit turnovers just four previous times in that span.
      Match last Sunday's 21-assist, 12-turnover outing against Southern Illinois, and Mizzou now has a positive assist-to-turnover ratio for the season (179-to-175). Mizzou has never had a positive assist-to-turnover ratio for a season; the closest came in 2003-04 (489-to-498, or 0.98-to-1).

LIKE A GOOD TEAM, MIZZOU IS THERE
      With apologies to Tiger Classic sponsor State Farm and Barry Manilow, composer of the insurance company's "Like a Good Neighbor" jingle, the Tigers were indeed a good team Dec. 2-3 in picking up their 19th Tiger Classic title in the 28 years of the winter tournament.
      Senior guard LaToya Bond was named tournament MVP for the second straight week, and senior center Christelle N'Garsanet and junior forward Carlynn Savant earned spots on the all-tournament team. It is the third all-tourney nod of N'Garsanet's career, while Savant picked up her second. Bond earned her fourth all-tournament team honor, including her second this season.

CHRISTELLE HAS A GOOD REASON TO MISS PRACTICE...
      Senior center Christelle N'Garsanet did not start Mizzou's exhibition game vs. Missouri Southern on Nov. 5 because she missed a pair of practices in the week leading up to the game. Often, that is cause for concern, yet N'Garsanet's absences were certainly excused, and even welcomed: The accounting major from Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, was in St. Louis for a job interview with a Big Four accounting firm.
      Mizzou's most-improved player a year ago, N'Garsanet has been the Tigers' presense in the paint for the last two seasons. She is currently MU's second-leading scorer, averaging 12.5 points per game, and is Mizzou's leading rebounder (7.5 rpg) and shot blocker (20). She picked up her third double-double of the season on Sunday vs. Southern Illinois (16 points, 10 rebounds).

SAVANT GOES OFF FOR CAREER GAME; FIRST ALL-TOURNEY SPOT
      Junior forward Carlynn Savant is one of the key reasons that the Tigers are hitting on all cylinders offensively. On Sunday, she was 7-of-8 from the field, including a perfect 3-of-3 from 3-point range, in scoring 18 points vs. Southern Illinois.
      Just two weeks ago, Savant had a career-high 19 points vs. Murray State in the State Farm Tiger Classic title match. She was 6-of-9 from the field, 2-of-4 on 3-pointers, and made all five of her free throws to top her previous best of 16 points set the previous Tuesday vs. Northwestern. For her efforts, she was named to the all-tournament team.
      For the season, Savant is third on the squad in both scoring (11.2 ppg) and rebounding (5.3 rpg).

HOME SWEET HOME
      The Tigers played five of their first six games on the road, and have fared relatively well away from Mizzou Arena this season, winning both of their neutral-site games, and going 1-2 on the road. They have started to regain a measure of dominance at home, where the Tigers were 5-8 in the inaugural season at Mizzou Arena.
      Thursday's game is part of a school record-tying eight-game homestand that will extend into the second week of January; Mizzou does not hit the road again until a January 11 contest at Nebraska. The other time the Tigers had such a long homestand came in the 1991-92 season; Mizzou was 7-1 in that stretch - the loss came to Iowa in the championship of the Mid-America Classic (now the State Farm Tiger Classic) - and finished the season 16-12.

HOT-SHOOTING TIGERS SET BENCHMARK FOR THIS DECADE
      Mizzou shot a sizzling 58.3 percent from the field last Sunday against Southern Illinois, hitting on 38 of its 65 shots. That's the best single-game shooting percentage in the last six years (box below). It's the first time this season that the Tigers have shot better than 50 percent in a game; Mizzou is fifth in the Big 12 in field-goal percentage this season at 45.2 percent.
      The hot shooting began with a 55.9-percent first half, but the Tigers shot lights-out in the final 20 minutes by canning 19 of their 31 attempts for a whopping 61.3 percent.