Kansas City, Here We Come!
3/7/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
March 7, 2005
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MIZZOU (10-17, 4-12 Big 12) at the 2005 Phillips 66 Big 12 Conference Tournament
Tuesday-Saturday, March 8-12, 2005 - Municipal Auditorium - Kansas City, Mo.
FIRST-ROUND GAMES - TUESDAY, MARCH 8:
Game 1 - #9 seed MIZZOU vs. #8 seed Kansas (12-15, 5-11), 12 p.m.
RADIO: KWWC-FM 90.5 (David Lile, play-by-play/Gary Link, color).
TV: None.
KANSAS CITY, HERE WE COME!
The Missouri women's basketball team (10-17, 4-12 Big 12) begins anew this week, looking to do what only one school has done in the eight previous years of the Phillips 66 Big 12 Conference Women's Basketball Tournament: win four straight games for the league's automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament. It has been 11 years since an underdog seventh-seed Missouri team ran the table to the 1994 Big Eight Tournament title, and a repeat performance will be the only way the Tigers can extend their string of postseason appearances to a school-record six, as Missouri's season will end without winning the tournament title by virtue of its sub-.500 record.
NEUTRAL COURT AN ODD SITE FOR THIRD ROUND OF BORDER SHOWDOWN
With Tuesday afternoon's matchup with the eighth-seeded Jayhawks comes a third and final renewal this season of the Border Showdown, presented by the Midwest Ford Dealers. Kansas swept the regular-season series for the first time since 1999, and Tuesday will mark the first time the women's basketball teams have met a third time in a season since the penultimate Big Eight Tournament in 1995. In all, this will be just the ninth time that the teams have met in a conference tournament, and the women's basketball rivalry will be making its Kansas City debut on Tuesday.
TIP-INS FROM LAST WEEK...
THIS TEAM'S YOUNG!
To put it more accurately, this team's inexperienced, in terms of floor time in the Big 12 Tournament. Senior C Megan Roney is the only player with game experience in more than one tournament; she's played in a team-high four games. All told, Mizzou's seven veterans have a total of just 16 games of experience among them, and junior G LaToya Bond is the only other player who has started a game in the Big 12 Tournament or played more than 20 minutes in a game. That said, junior C Christelle N'Garsanet made the most of her two games in Dallas last year, averaging eight points to hold the highest scoring average of any of the returners.
N'GARSANET TAKES OVER INSIDE
Junior Christelle N'Garsanet (Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire / Illinois Central College) has taken over as MU's presence in the paint this season. After averaging just 11 minutes of playing time per game last year, N'Garsanet has started all but one game this season.
She's gone for 20 or more points in two of Mizzou's last six games, posting her second- and third-highest scoring outputs of her two-year MU career with 23 points against Texas A&M on Feb. 12, and 20 at Oklahoma on Feb. 19.
After going without a bucket (0-for-10) for just the second time this season in the win Feb. 9 at Colorado, N'Garsanet made up for it with 10 rebounds in that game, then bounced back against the Aggies by going 10-for-11 from the field. N'Garsanet's 90.9-percent accuracy from the field is the highest by a Tiger in the last six years, and the best in the Big 12 this year.
N'Garsanet has a pair of double-doubles: a 16-point, career-high 14-rebound effort at SMS on Dec. 8, and a breakout performance against Mississippi Valley State the previous Friday night in the first round of the State Farm Tiger Classic, when the 6-foot-3 center exploded for career highs of 29 points and 13 rebounds against the Delta Devilettes, propelling her to all-tournament honors. She just missed another double-double New Year's Eve, hitting for 10 points and nine rebounds at Miami (Ohio).
N'Garsanet is second on the team in scoring at 12.2 ppg, and she is also Mizzou's top rebounder (6.3 rpg). She set a career high with four steals vs. Texas A&M, tied her career high with five blocks vs. Oklahoma State, and had a game- and career-high six assists last Saturday at Nebraska. She leads the team and is sixth in the Big 12 with 1.33 blocks a game.
BROOKS HAS ADDED SCORING PUNCH
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. Her 30-point outburst on Jan. 8 against Nebraska is only the most noticeable addition to the scoring punch she's provided as Missouri's leading scorer, averaging 13.0 points per game. She has scored in double figures in 14 of her last 18 games, and has topped 15 points eight times, including four of her last five games.
She started her first game eligible against Stanford and had six points and three rebounds. Brooks then canned the winning jumper in Mizzou's win at Miami (Ohio) on New Year's Eve with a then-career-high 16 points.
Less than two weeks later, Brooks had toppled that total by halftime of the Nebraska game when she had 17 at the break. Her 30 points are the most by a Tiger in regulation since Evan Unrau also had 30 vs. Southeastern Louisiana in 2001. Note - Unrau had 29 in regulation of last year's double-overtime game with Kansas State in which she finished with 40. Brooks also had a season-high three assists, and made 86 percent of her free throws (18-of-21) during the week.
On Feb. 16 at Baylor, Brooks made all nine of her free throws, and scored Mizzou's final 12 points to finish with 19 on the night. She followed that with 16 at Oklahoma that Saturday, and added another 19 vs. No. 21 Iowa State last Wednesday before scoring a game-high 18 at Nebraska last Saturday.
BOND ... LaToya Bond
Junior G LaToya Bond (Urbana, Ill. / Urbana HS) was just 1-of-6 from 3-point range in two games at Colorado and vs. Texas A&M in February, but the one she did hit ended 15 years of frustration in Boulder, Colo., as her buzzer-beating trey gave the Tigers a 58-55 win - their first at Colorado since Feb. 7, 1990. She finished with a game-high-tying 15 points, and added six rebounds and three assists. She played her most complete game of the season on Feb. 12 vs. Texas A&M, directing the Tiger offense to a 63-46 win against the Aggies. Mizzou hit on 54.2 percent of its shots - its most accurate game in Big 12 play this season, and second-highest percentage overall. Bond finished with 14 points, eight rebounds, and seven assists for MU.
For that week, Bond averaged 14.5 points, 7.0 rebounds, and 5.0 assists, and her season averages to date are 12.0 points, 4.7 rebounds and 4.1 assists a game. She is ranked fourth in the Big 12 in steals (2.19 spg).
RIDDLE ME THIS!
Sophomore F EeTisha Riddle (O'Fallon, Ill. / O'Fallon HS) had a breakout week against CU and Texas A&M, earning her first career double-double with a 12-point, career-high 10-rebound effort in Boulder. Then this past Saturday, Riddle returned to the site of her best performance as a freshman - Nebraska's Devaney Center, where she scored the game-tying and -winning baskets in the final minute of play last year - to score eight straight points to point Mizzou toward a fifth straight win in Lincoln.
She finished with a career-high 14 points at Nebraska, and is MU's fifth-leading scorer, averaging 6.4 points per game. She is also fourth in rebounding (4.6 rpg) on the squad.
SAVANT'S NO IDIOT
Sophomore F Carlynn Savant (Euless, Texas / Trinity HS) has been a solid part of the Tiger offense all season, and has proven to be a force on the boards as well. She did both extremely well last Saturday at Nebraska, scoring 11 points and hauling in a career-high 14 rebounds for her first career double-double.
She had nine rebounds - including eight on the defensive end - in the first 10 minutes of play Feb. 12 against Texas A&M. It was the second straight game in which she had nine boards; Savant has led Mizzou in rebounding 11 times this year.
Savant is also one of the team's best sharpshooters. She is fifth in the Big 12 in 3-point accuracy after hitting on 34 of her 79 attempts from behind the arc (.430). In Big 12 games only, Savant is fifth in the league at 45.2 percent (19 of 42). She is fourth in scoring at 8.4 ppg, and second in rebounding at 6.0 rpg.
