Jan. 2, 2006
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vs. No. 4 Baylor (10-0, 0-0)
Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2006 - Columbia, Mo.
TIPOFF: 7:00 p.m. CST.
ARENA: Mizzou Arena (15,061). Opened in 2004. MU is 292-110 (.726) all-time at home.
RADIO: KFRU-AM 1400/KLIK-AM 1240 (David Lile, play-by-play/Gary Link, color) and available to affiliates of the Tiger Network. Also available online at mutigers.com.
TV: Mizzou Sports Network (check p. 3 for listings). Dan McLaughlin, play-by-play / Beau Baehman, color / Steve Kurtenbach, producer; also online via Mizzou All-Access subscription at mutigers.com.
SERIES: Baylor leads, 10-3, and has won six straight, including the last two in Columbia.
RANKINGS: Baylor is ranked No. 4 in both major polls; Mizzou is unranked.
COACHES:
Missouri: Cindy Stein (Illinois '84), 122-99 at MU (eighth season) and 187-124 overall (11th season).
Baylor: Kim Mulkey-Robertson (Louisiana Tech '84), 141-38 at BU and overall (sixth season).
MIZZOU HOSTS DEFENDING NATIONAL CHAMPIONS WEDNESDAY NIGHT
The Mizzou women's basketball team (10-2) brings a nine-game winning streak into its Big 12 Conference-opener Wednesday night, but there could not be a more formidable foe for the Tigers to begin the league slate: it's Baylor (10-0), the defending NCAA National Champions, who comes to Columbia with a nation-leading 30-game winning streak.
Mizzou's nine-game winning streak is currently the seventh-longest in the country, behind only Baylor, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia Tech, Duke and Kansas.
TIGERS ONE WIN FROM EQUALING LAST YEAR'S TOTAL
Of all the measures of the success of this year's team, the most compelling might be this: Mizzou enters Big 12 play just one win shy of last year's entire season total. The Tigers were 11-18 a year ago, including 5-11 in Big 12 play.
SCOUTING BAYLOR
The Bears are led by senior Kodak All-American Sophia Young, who is third in the Big 12 in scoring at 21.0 ppg. She is averaging a double-double with her 10.2 rebounds per game, and is shooting 61.6 percent from the field.
Young is not the only weapon that Baylor has under sixth-year Head Coach Kim Mulkey-Robertson; two other Bears are averaging double figures in scoring. They are sophomore guard Angela Tisdale (15.7 ppg, 7.2 assists/gm.), who returns to the lineup following a three-game suspension, and junior forward Abiola Wabara (11.3 ppg, 6.7 rpg).
LAST TIME OUT: MIZZOU 84, WESTERN MICHIGAN 65
Behind a Mizzou Arena record and career-high 34 points from LaToya Bond, the Missouri women notched their ninth straight win in an 84-65 victory over Western Michigan in the Tigers' non-conference finale Thursday night.
BOND'S 34 TIES THE BEST IN THE BIG 12 THIS YEAR
The Mizzou Arena-record 34 points scored by LaToya Bond on Thursday not only shatters her previous career high of 25 points set in the 2004-05 season-opener vs. Northern Illinois, it also ties the best mark in the Big 12 Conference this season. Bond joins Colorado's Jackie McFarland and Jasmina Ilic, and Oklahoma State's Whitney Pegram, on the list of the Big 12's top single-game scorers this year.
TIGERS STREAKING IN A GOOD WAY
As mentioned earlier, Mizzou is on a nine-game wining streak, which is the longest since Mizzou's school-record 13-game winning streak in 1984-85. Mizzou's current streak mimics their nine-game streak in the 1999-2000 season - Cindy Stein's second in Columbia. Both squads won their last nine games of the non-conference schedule before starting Big 12 play. This year's Tigers will try to divert from that 2000 squad beginning Wednesday; six years ago, Mizzou lost its Big 12-opener at home to Iowa State.
BOND... LaToya Bond!
With apologies to Ian Fleming, senior guard LaToya Bond has left opponents shaken this season and fans stirring in their seats.
She has led the Tiger offense to have five scorers in double figures six times over Mizzou's nine-game winning streak (after Mizzou did so just once last year). Bond has been a primary part of that success, scoring in double figures in each of Mizzou's 12 games this season, incluidng five times over 20 points.
The most recent example of that came Thursday vs. Western Michigan, when the Urbana, Ill., native poured in a Mizzou Arena-record 34 points to lead the Tigers to their ninth straight win. Bond had 27 of those points in a comeback second half in which she went 11-of-12 from the field, and made all four of her 3-point shots.
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 has two tournament MVP awards under her belt this season, and is Mizzou's leading scorer at 18.1 points per game. She has a Big 12 Conference-leading 3.0 steals per game, and is among the Big 12 leaders in 10 different categories, including - at 5-foot-10 - blocks!
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. She has already secured an internship for next summer.
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 12.7 points per game, and is Mizzou's leading rebounder (7.8 rpg) and shot blocker (24). She picked up her fourth double-double of the season on Thursday vs. Western Michigan (14 points, 11 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 Dec. 18, 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 earlier, 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 (11.1 ppg) and rebounding (5.3 rpg).
(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.
Add Thursday's 21-assist, 14-turnover outing, and Mizzou has a positive assist-to-turnover ratio for the season (200-to-189). 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).