Nov. 20, 2006
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STANFORD, Calif. - Off to the third-best start in school history, the Missouri women's basketball team will look to win its fourth-consecutive game on Tuesday when it visits tenth-ranked Stanford at Maples Pavilion at 7 p.m. Pacific time. The game can be heard in Mid-Missouri on KFRU 1400-AM.
The game will be the first of three in five days as part of a road swing through the Bay Area. On Friday the Tigers will face Alabama in the opening game of the Hilton Concord Thanksgiving Tournament in Moraga, Calif. Mizzou gets either Cal State-Northridge or tourney host St. Mary's on Saturday. This venture to the west coast marks the ninth time in program history - third under head coach Cindy Stein - that a Mizzou group has played in the Golden State. The first visit came in 1982 when MU faced Maryland in the NCAA Tournament in Maples Pavilion in the only prior trip to the facility.
Missouri (3-0) has gotten balanced scoring in all three games as four players are contributing at least 11 points per game and seven are converting at least 40 percent from the floor. The Tigers are also getting to the free-throw line nearly twice as often as their opponents, and converting at an 86 percent clip.
Stanford (1-1) will be playing its first game in eight days after falling to No. 24 BYU, 55-52, last Monday in the second round of the WNIT. Brooke Smith and Candice Wiggins are each scoring in double figures with 19.5 and 11.5 points per game, respectively. Kristen Newlin is third in scoring at 8.0 ppg and tied for first in rebounding - with Smith - at 8.5 rpg. All three players have combined for eight of the Cardinals' 10 3-pointers. Stanford has won the past six Pac-10 titles and was picked to finish first again this season.
Stanford leads the all-time series, 3-1, and has won the last three games. This will be the first meeting in Maples Pavilion. Two years ago, the second-ranked Cardinal defeated the Tigers, 71-55, before 7,585 fans at Mizzou Arena.
This will mark the first time this season that Mizzou has faced a team ranked in the top-25. Last year the Tigers were 1-3 against ranked foes with the lone victory coming at home against then-No. 4 Baylor as MU snapped the Bears' 30-game winning streak. The last time an MU squad came away with a road win over a ranked opponent was on March 4, 2002, when they upset then-No. 4 Georgia in Athens, Ga., in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.