Jan. 5, 2007
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The Missouri women's basketball team welcomes Iowa State to Mizzou Arena on Saturday for the Tigers' Big 12 home opener. Tip-off is set for 1 p.m. Central time.
Coming off a recent loss at Colorado to open the league slate, Mizzou returns home where it is 8-0 this season and has won six of its last eight Big 12 games.
Missouri (12-2, 0-1 Big 12) is averaging 76 points per game overall and 80 points at home this season. EeTisha Riddle leads four Tigers in double-figure scoring with 15.1 points per game. She also ranked first on the team and 11th in the Big 12 in field-goal percentage at 53 percent. Riddle and senior Carlynn Savant are both averaging better than seven rebounds a contest, while the team as a whole pulls down 38 boards a game.
The Tigers have also done a lot of damage from the outside and charity stripe. Mizzou's six 3-pointers per game is second in the Big 12 and its school-record free throw percentage pace of 77.8 percent ranks fourth in the country.
Iowa State (13-1, 1-0) is playing just as well as the Tigers after having defeated Kansas, 61-50, for its tenth-consecutive win in its Big 12 home opener on Wednesday. Saturday's game will be the first outside the state of Iowa for the Cyclones since they claimed runner-up honors at Pepperdine's Thanksgiving Tournament in Malibu, Calif. - a span of 10 games.
Senior All-America candidate Lyndsey Medders leads the ISU attack with a team-best 13.6 ppg, 6.9 rpg and 3.6 assists per game. She recently set the school-record for assists and entered the week second in the NCAA in assists. The Cyclones are also among the best at shooting from the outside as they average 7.8 three's per game, which leads the Big 12.
Missouri leads the all-time series 44-18 overall and 21-6 in Columbia. The teams split the regular-season a year ago with each school winning at home. The streaky series has seen MU collect 29 straight and 38 of the first 40 to open the rivalry before ISU laid claim to 13 of the next 14. Mizzou won all four contests in 2003-04 before ISU swept the 2005 season leading up to last year's split.
Fans may also see a lot of familiar faces from the recent Missouri prep scene. Five players who combined to earn nine All-State awards in the Show-Me State are among the two teams. Those five - Mizzou's Amanda Hanneman (Blue Springs South HS) and Jessra Johnson (Fayette HS) and ISU's Heather Ezell (Kickapoo HS), Anna Florzak (Notre Dame de Sion HS) and Rachel Pierson (Incarnate Word Academy) - are all in their first two years of college.
Tickets prices are $5 for adults and $3 for youth and senior citizens. Truman Club members will also be admitted for free with their guests able to purchase a $2 ticket.
Prior to the game Sixth Stripe Club members will have a "Chalk Talk" reception in the Clinton Club at Mizzou Arena starting at Noon.