Nov. 11, 2006

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CARBONDALE, Ill. - The Missouri women's basketball team will tip-off its 33rd season on Sunday afternoon at Southern Illinois. Start time at the SIU Arena is set for 2:05 p.m. The game will be broadcast on KWWC, 90.5 FM with David Lile and Edith Thompson calling the action.

Both schools played just one exhibition game and won them handily - Mizzou over Truman State 92-34 and SIU over Christian Brothers 69-29.

For the Tigers, the game will be their first of three in six days and the fifth time in the last seven years they have opened away from home. MU is 25-7 all-time in season-openers and 8-4 in openers on the road.

Missouri returns 10 letterwinners and three starters from a year ago when it went 21-10 and made its ninth NCAA Tournament appearance.

The game will be a homecoming for junior guard Kassie Drew. Drew played her final two seasons of high school ball at Anna-Jonesboro HS in nearby Anna, Ill. and is expecting a large contingent of family, friends and former teammates to be in attendance. Additionally, starters Blair Hardiek and EeTisha Riddle are each from areas within a two-hour drive.

SIU is coming off a 10-18 season a year ago - its best mark since 1997-98. The Salukis were picked to finish in a tie for seventh in the Missouri Valley preseason coaches poll. SIU returns four starters, including the reigning MVC Newcomer of the Year, Carlai Moore. A year ago, Moore averaged a team-best 17.6 ppg to go along with 4.7 rpg.

Missouri leads the all-time series 6-5 and has won the last three, including a 96-69 decision last Dec. in Columbia.