Jan. 6, 2006
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vs. Kansas State (11-1, 1-0)
Saturday, Jan. 7, 2006 - Columbia, Mo.
TIPOFF: 1:05 p.m. CST.
ARENA: Mizzou Arena (15,061). Opened in 2004. MU is 293-110 (.727) all-time at home.
RADIO: KFRU-AM 1400/KLIK-AM 1240 (David Lile, play-by-play/Tonya Mirts, color). Also available online at mutigers.com.
TV: Mizzou Sports Network (check p. 3 for listings). Beau Baehman, play-by-play / Gary Link, color / Steve Kurtenbach, producer; also online via Mizzou All-Access subscription at mutigers.com.
SERIES: Kansas State leads, 36-31, and has won the last nine matchups, including the last four in Columbia.
RANKINGS: Neither team is ranked.
COACHES:
Missouri: Cindy Stein (Illinois '84), 123-99 at MU (eighth season) and 188-124 overall (11th season).
Kansas State: Deb Patterson (Rockford 79), 186-104 at KSU and overall (10th season).
TIGERS, WILDCATS VIE FOR EARLY BIG 12 LEAD SATURDAY AFTERNOON
Coming off a thrilling upset of the No. 4-ranked and defending NCAA National Champion Baylor Lady Bears, the Mizzou women's basketball team (11-2, 1-0 Big 12) puts its 10-game winning streak on the line Saturday afternoon against an equally hot Kansas State squad.
Mizzou's 10-game winning streak is currently the seventh-longest in the country, behind only Tennessee, Duke, North Carolina, Kansas, LSU and Florida. Texas A&M has also won 10 straight, giving the Big 12 three of the top nine streaks in the country.
The Tigers are looking to cap a perfect 8-0 homestand, which ties the longest in school history. Coupled with the Nov. 22 win vs. Northwestern, Mizzou is currently 8-0 at Mizzou Arena this season.
TIGERS EQUAL LAST YEAR'S WIN TOTAL
Of all the measures of the success of this year's team, the most compelling might be this: with the win over the defending champs, Mizzou has matched its total of 11 wins from last season, when the Tigers were 11-18.
LAST TIME OUT: MIZZOU 64, #4 BAYLOR 61
EeTisha Riddle hit a clutch 3-pointer down the stretch, and then a clinching free throw with three seconds left, as the University of Missouri women's basketball team ended defending NCAA National Champion Baylor's 30-game winning streak with a 64-61 win Wednesday night at Mizzou Arena. For more on the game, refer to the recap and box score on page 14.
SOMETHING IN THE WATER IN BIG 12-LAND?
There are a couple of interesting parallels between Mizzou's win on Wednesday, and the BCS title match between USC and Texas. In both games, the defending champion came in with a 30-plus game winning streak, and both champs left town after a three-point loss to a team from the Big 12 Conference.
SCOUTING KANSAS STATE
The Wildcats (11-1, 1-0) are coming off a two-point win over Texas Tech on Wednesday, and enter this weekend's matchup as winners of their last six games.
Much as they were four years ago, K-State is led by an underclass squad that includes three freshman starters. The Wildcats' leading scorer is a junior, guard Claire Coggins (13.2 ppg). Freshmen forwards Marlies Gipson (6.3 rpg) and Shalee Lehning (6.1 rpg) patrol the boards for Head Coach Deb patterson's club, and sophomore guard Kimberly Dietz (11.4 ppg) and freshman center JoAnn Hamlin (9.5 ppg) round out KSU's starting five.
SERIES VS. THE WILDCATS
Kansas State leads, 36-31, and has won the last nine games against Missouri.
A major difference with Saturday's meeting, though, is that it will be the first since 2001 in which Kansas State is unranked. Mizzou has won the last four games against an unranked Wildcat team.
TIGERS STREAKING IN A GOOD WAY
As mentioned earlier, Mizzou is on a 10-game wining streak, which is the longest since Mizzou's school-record 13-game winning streak in 1984-85 (see box above). 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 diverted from that 2000 squad by winning its Big 12-opener, though; six years ago, Mizzou lost its Big 12-opener at home to Iowa State.
Mizzou's 11-2 start is the second-best in school history through 13 games; only the 1976-77 squad that began 12-1 started better. Since the Tigers lost their 14th game in 1977, a Tiger win on Saturday would match the best start in school history through 14 games (12-2). Five Mizzou teams (1976-77, 1977-78, 1982-83, 1983-84 and 1992-93) have started 12-2.
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 10-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 13 games this season, incluidng six times over 20 points.
The most recent example of that came in Wednesday's upset win over the defending national champs, when Bond had a team-high 21. The previous Thursday vs. Western Michigan, the Urbana, Ill., native poured in a Mizzou Arena-record 34 points. 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 18.3 points per game. She has a Big 12 Conference-leading 2.9 steals per game, and is among the Big 12 leaders in nine different categories, including - at 5-foot-10 - blocks!
"RIDDLE" ME THIS: WHO CAN BEAT THE SHOT CLOCK?
It would be an understatement to say that junior forward EeTisha Riddle is not Mizzou's first option when it comes to 3-point shooting; she has made just seven (out of 37 attempts) in her three-year career, but none was more important than the one she swished home with 2:08 left in Wednesday's win over Baylor.
With the Tigers down 59-58, Carlynn Savant rebounded an errant Tiffany Brooks jumper, then fired the ball outside to Riddle, who let the ball go with two seconds left on the shot clock. Mizzou didn't relinquish the lead after the trey.
Riddle has been Mizzou's heart and soul on the defensive end. When she wasn't providing help coverage on All-American Sophia Young, Riddle was working on holding Baylor's Abiola Wabara under her season averages of 11.3 points and 6.5 rebounds per game (Wabara finished with nine points and five rebounds).
She earned all-tournament honors at the Pittsburgh Thanksgiving Tournament, averaging 7.0 points and 8.5 rebounds in Mizzou's two wins out east. For the season, Riddle is just shy of a double-figure scoring average, scoring 9.6 points per game (fourth on the team), and following her fourth double-double of the season on Wednesday, is now Mizzou's leading rebounder (7.8 rpg).
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 second on the team in both scoring (12.5 ppg) and rebounding (7.7 rpg). Like Riddle, N'Garsanet also has four double-doubles on the season.
SAVANT LEADS THE BIG 12 SHARPSHOOTERS
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 (10.7 ppg) and rebounding (5.3 rpg). Savant leads the Big 12 Conference in 3-point field-goal percentage, as she is shooting 48.1 percent (25-of-52) from beyond the arc.