Mizzou Women Look to Snap Winless Streak in Austin on Saturday
1/13/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Jan. 13, 2006
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at Texas (7-6, 1-2)
Saturday, Jan. 14, 2006 - Austin, Texas
TIPOFF: 7:00 p.m. CST.
ARENA: Frank Erwin Center (16,775). Opened in 1977. MU is 169-191 (.469) all-time on an opponent's home floor, including 24-15 (.615) when ranked in the AP Top 25.
RADIO: KWWC-FM 90.5 (David Lile, play-by-play/Edith Thompson, color). Also available online at mutigers.com.
TV: None.
RANKINGS: Mizzou is No. 24 in Monday's Associated Press poll and receiving votes in Tuesday's coaches poll. Texas is receiving votes in both polls.
SERIES: Texas leads, 10-1, including all seven meetings in Austin. Saturday's game will be the first in which Mizzou is ranked, and the third in which Texas is unranked.
COACHES:
Missouri: Cindy Stein (Illinois '84), 125-99 at MU (eighth season) and 190-124 overall (11th season).
Texas: Jody Conradt (Baylor '63), 759-222 at UT (30th season) and 876-284 overall (37th season).
MIZZOU WOMEN LOOK TO SNAP WINLESS STRING IN AUSTIN SATURDAY
The 24th-ranked Mizzou women's basketball team (13-2, 3-0 Big 12) puts sole possession of first place in the Big 12 Conference on the line on Saturday in Austin, Texas, against a Texas team that has had a roller-coaster season.
Mizzou will try and do what no other Tiger squad has done before, and that is begin conference play 4-0. It is just the third time in school history that Missouri has started 3-0 in league play, and the first time in the 10 years of the Big 12.
On Wednesday, the Tigers played their first game as a ranked squad since Jan. 3, 1985, and came through with flying colors in a six-point win at Nebraska. It is Mizzou's sixth straight win in Lincoln. Texas picked up its first Big 12 win of the season on Wednesday vs. Iowa State after losing its first two contests at Kansas and then-No. 4 Baylor. Four of UT's six losses this season have come to top-25 opponents - all in the top 10.
FROM RANK TO RANKED: THE 2005-06 MISSOURI TIGERS
OK, so it isn't very catchy, and since last year's team that went 11-18 is essentially the same squad that is now in the Associated Press Top 25, "rank" might not be approprriate, either, but one thing is certain: Mizzou is in the AP Top 25 for the first time since the 1984-85 season.
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 received the 28th-highest total of votes on Tuesday.
BOND NAMED BIG 12 PLAYER OF THE WEEK
On Monday, senior guard LaToya Bond was named Big 12 Conference Women's Basketball Player of the Week by a media voting panel for games played from Jan. 3-8. It is the first conference weekly award for Bond, who became the first Mizzou player to win the award since current Mizzou Coordinator of Basketball Operations Tracy Franklin in 2001.
Bond went over the 20-point mark in each of Mizzou's wins last week while directing the Tigers to a 2-0 conference start for the first time since 1992-93. She started the week with a team-high 21 points as MU upset Baylor and ended the Lady Bears' 30-game winning streak. She played all 40 minutes, shooting 7-of-15 from the field while adding three assists, two blocks, two steals and four rebounds. The Urbana, Ill., native added a game-high 20 points, going 7-of-8 from the field, making her only 3-point attempt, and also hitting all five of her free throws, in just 27 minutes on Saturday. The victory snapped a nine-game losing streak against Kansas State and improved Mizzou's winning streak to 11 games (fifth-best in the nation). Last Saturday's game was her sixth 20-point scoring effort of the year.
TIGERS STREAKING (IN A GOOD WAY!)
As mentioned earlier, Mizzou is on a 12-game wining streak, which is the longest since Mizzou's school-record 13-game winning streak in 1984-85 (see box at right). Mizzou's 13-2 start is the best in school history through 15 games; it matches the starts by four previous teams (1976-77, 1982-83, 1983-84 and 1992-93).
Mizzou's 12-game winning streak is currently the fifth-longest in the country, behind only No. 1 Tennessee, No. 2 Duke, No. 4 North Carolina and No. 3 LSU.
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 Nebraska on Wednesday, Mizzou bumped its win total to 13 this season; the Tigers had 11 wins all of last year (11-18, 4-12 Big 12).
LAST TIME OUT: MIZZOU 64, NEBRASKA 58
LaToya Bond led all scorers with 21 points, and Carlynn Savant had 14 of her 16 points in the second half, to lead the No. 24 Mizzou women to their 12th straight win, 64-58, on Wednesday at the Devaney Center. With the win, the Tigers move to 3-0 in league play for the first time since 1989, and temporarily take over sole possession of first place in the Big 12.
SCOUTING TEXAS
The Longhorns, led by Naismith Hall of Fame legend Jody Conradt, have lost more games before the middle of January than any Texas team since the 1997-98 squad that finished 12-15 and 7-9 in the Big 12. Like that 1997-98 team, this year's Longhorns have also been set back by injuries.
Texas has done so while playing the nation's second-toughest schedule according to CollegeRPI.com, which has the Longhorns rated at No. 11. Texas has played six of the nation's top-25 RPI teams, and has gone 1-5 against them (defeated George Washington, lost to New Mexico, at Tennessee, Duke, at Rutgers, at Baylor). Four of UT's six losses have come against current top-10 teams (No. 1 Tennessee, No. 2 Duke, No. 5 Baylor, No. 9/10 Rutgers).
Junior forward Tiffany Jackson again anchors the inside game for the `Horns, and is UT's leading scorer (14.3 ppg) and rebounder (8.2 rpg). Freshman guard Erika Arriaran is second in scoring (11.3 ppg), and senior Nina Norman leads the team with 29 assists and is third in scoring (9.4 ppg).
On Wednesday, Texas got a career-high 18 points from senior Daria Mieloszynska - a former teammate of Christelle N'Garsanet at Illinois Central College - in an 80-50 win over Iowa State. Mieloszynska went 6-for-11 from 3-point range after entering the contest 1-of-14 from long distance for the season.
SERIES VS. THE LONGHORNS
Texas is 11-1 overall in the series, and has won all seven games played in Austin, including all four in the Big 12 era.
Roles are reversed for the first time, though, in the 12-game history between the two schools that dates back to 1980, as the Tigers are ranked (at No. 24 in the AP) for the first time vs. Texas. The Longhorns are unranked for just the fourth time in the series, and while UT has won all three of those previous games, the margin of victory is just 9.3 points per game; ranked Texas squads have won by nearly double that (17.8 ppg).
Mizzou's lone win in the series came in the Tigers' 2001 Sweet Sixteen season, when Amanda Lassiter (22/10) and Evan Unrau (18/13) each had double-doubles and combined for 40 of the Tigers' 68 points in a 16-point win.
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 12-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 15 games this season, including eight times over 20 points.
The most recent example of that came in Wednesday's win over Nebraska, when Bond had a game-high 21 points. She has scored over 20 and led the Tigers in scoring in each of Mizzou's last four games, including 21 points in the Jan. 4 upset over defending NCAA National Champion Baylor, and a Mizzou Arena-record 34 points the previous Thursday (Dec. 29) vs. Western Michigan. 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 countered a season-low 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 18.6 points per game (fifth in the Big 12). She is among the Big 12 leaders in nine different categories, including - at 5-foot-7 - 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 eight (out of 40 attempts) in her three-year career, but none was more important than the one she swished home with 2:08 left in last 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 added another key 3-pointer in Wednesday's win at Nebraska; she's 3-of-9 this season from beyond the arc.
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 at 9.5 points per game (fourth on the team), and is second in rebounding (7.3 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 scoring (12.3 ppg) and is MU's top rebounder (7.9 rpg). N'Garsanet picked up her fifth double-double of the season Wednesday at Nebraska (16 points, 10 rebounds).
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 Wednesday at Nebraska, Savant found the holes in the Huskers' zone in the second half and was 5-of-8 from the field, with a pair of 3-pointers, in scoring 14 of her 16 points.
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 (10.9 ppg) and rebounding (5.5 rpg). Savant leads the Big 12 Conference in 3-point field-goal percentage, as she is shooting a sizzling 50.8 percent (30-of-59) from beyond the arc.
