1-2 BIG 12 SHOWDOWN TAKES PLACE IN MIZZOU ARENA SATURDAY
      The Mizzou women's basketball team (16-4, 6-2 Big 12), winners of 15 of their last 17 games, puts its national-best 11-0 home record up against the only undefeated team remaining in Big 12 Women's Basketball, the 11th-ranked Oklahoma Sooners (18-4, 8-0). These two squads are first and second in the league, and Saturday's matchup has huge implications in the Big 12 race.
      An OU win would put the Sooners three games up on the rest of the pack with just seven games remaining, while a Tiger victory would reroute Mizzou fans' thoughts from merely disproving a 10th-place preseason coaches poll pick into hopes for a top-four seeded bye to the Phillips 66 Big 12 Conference Women's Basketball Championship.

LAST TIME OUT: MIZZOU 66, KANSAS STATE 65
      LaToya Bond hit a fallway jumper with 3.6 seconds left in overtime to bring the Mizzou women back to a 66-65 win over Kansas State in Big 12 Conference action Wednesday night at Bramlage Coliseum.

MIZZOU PUTS THE CLAMPS DOWN ON WILDCATS
      As they are often wont to do at Bramlage Coliseum, Kansas State jumped out to a quick 9-0 lead in the first 95 seconds of the game. That would be the Wildcats' most prolific scoring stretch of the game, however, as the Tigers held K-State to just 56 points over the next 42:36. That total is under Mizzou's defensive average of 57.6 points per 40 minutes in Big 12 play this season.

HOME SWEET HOME
      Part of the Tigers' about-face this season (see note on page 3) starts with their success at home. Mizzou is a perfect 11-0 in the friendly confines of Mizzou Arena this season, one year removed from a 5-8 mark at home. Mizzou's 11-game homecourt winning streak is the longest current streak in the Big 12, and the second-best home record in the NATION behind No. 1 North Carolina's 12-0 home mark.
      The Tigers capped a school-record-tying eight-game homestand a perfect 8-0 to begin Big 12 play. Included in that homestand was a 64-61 win over then-No. 4 Baylor to end the defending NCAA National Champions' 30-game win streak.
      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 posting their only losses this season on the road (3-4 overall).
      Mizzou is also nearing its 300th win all-time at home; the Tigers enter Saturday with an all-time home record of 296-110 (.729)

BOND BREAKS 1,000/300 PLATEAU IN MANHATTAN
      Lost in the frenzy of LaToya Bond's game-winning jumper, and her numerous other heroics in the second half and overtime of Wednesday's win at Kansas State, were a pair of major milestones that Bond surpassed toward the end of the game.
      Her jumper in the paint with 6:32 remaining in the second half not only began the decisive 16-2 run down the stretch that forced overtime, but it also was her 1,000th career point, making her the 24th player in school history to reach that milestone. After her game-winning basket, Bond now has 1,002 career points.
      In addition, Bond picked up her 300th career assist less than two minutes later when she fed Christelle N'Garsanet for another jumper in the paint. She now has 301 assists for her career, which puts her in seventh place in the Mizzou record books.

TIGERS EXCEED 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 at Kansas State on Wednesday, Mizzou bumped its win total to 16 this season to guarantee Mizzou a winning record; the Tigers had 11 wins all of last year (11-18). In addition, the sixth Big 12 win of the season exceeded last year's entire season total (4-12).
      Mizzou has won 15 of its last 17 games. Mizzou's 16-4 start is the second-best in school history through 19 games; it trails only the 17-3 start by the 1983-84 Tigers. In addition, the Tigers' 6-2 conference start is the best in their 10 years in the Big 12, and just a game off the all-time team best set by the 1984 Big Eight squad.

JUST IN CASE YOU MISSED IT...
      With its loss at Texas on Jan. 14, Mizzou dropped out of the Associated Press Top 25. That came one week after the Tigers appeared in the writers' poll (at No. 24) for the first time since the 1984-85 season. The Tigers are receiving votes this week in the No. 26 spot.
      Close followers of the Tigers vividly recally the 2001 NCAA Sweet Sixteen squad and might wonder why that team wasn't ranked. It had more to do with the relative strength of the Big 12 - Mizzou was fifth in the league that year - and the fact that the final AP poll is released at the conclusion of the regular season, before the Tigers' deep run in the NCAA Tournament occurred. Mizzou was ranked 19th in the final coaches' poll of 2001; the Tigers are also currently the top "others receiving votes" team in that poll.

SERIES VS. OKLAHOMA
      Oklahoma is one of four Big 12 opponents that the Tigers have a winning record against; Mizzou leads the 48-game series by a 28-20 margin. In Columbia, Mizzou's record is 14-6 against the Sooners, who will be making their first appearance in Mizzou Arena. When OU is ranked, the Tigers are 2-5, yet won the last time the Sooners were in Columbia two years ago; Mizzou beat 20th-ranked Oklahoma, 77-65.

SCOUTING THE SOONERS
      Oklahoma has a solid all-around attack centered around center Courtney Paris. The 6-foot-4 freshman leads the nation in rebounding at 14.7 per game, and is also fourth in the latest NCAA stats in scoring (21.0 ppg). She has a nation-leading 19 double-doubles this season (14 consecutively), which is one off the Big 12 record set by Angie Welle in 2001-02.
      Paris is by no means the only weapon for Sooner coach Sherri Coale, however. OU starts juniors at the other four positions, led by preseason All-Big 12 coaches pick Leah Rush (10.5 ppg / 4.5 rpg), and Erin Higgins (9.3 ppg / 1.9 rpg). The duo are both averaging 15 points per game in their two-game careers against Missouri, with Higgins' tallies all coming from beyond the 3-point line. Chelsi Welch (8.9 ppg / 3.4 ppg) leads the nation in free-throw shooting at 95.7 percent.