Feb. 23, 2007
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Missouri takes a three-game winning streak on the road to No. 13/11 Oklahoma for a 2 p.m. tip on Sunday ... the Tigers and Sooners have each won three-straight which is tied for the second-longest in the conference behind Baylor's five-in-a-row ... Mizzou is 6-6 in road/neutral games this season and 2-5 in league play ... OU has an 8-2 home record and 5-1 in Big 12 games ... Sunday marks the Tigers' final road game of the regular-season.
Mizzou-Oklahoma Series History
Sunday's game marks the 51st all-time meeting between the schools, with Missouri holding a 28-22 overall lead ... the Sooners have a 12-9 edge in Norman ... Missouri held a 19-6 lead through the first 25 games before the teams split the next eight ... OU then won five-straight before Mizzou claimed the next four, culminating with win in Cindy Stein's first season in 1999 ... OU has won seven of the last eight, including both games a year ago - 88-73 in Columbia and 75-54 in the Big 12 Championship Semifinals ... since the 1999 win, OU has won three-straight in Norman.
Top Two Scorers In Big 12 Games Meet Sunday
Sunday's contest will be the only regular-season meeting between the top two post players in the conference - Missouri's EeTisha Riddle and Oklahoma's Courtney Paris ... the duo ranks first on their respective teams in scoring, rebounding, blocks, field goal percentage and minutes played ... in Big 12 play, Paris leads the league with 23.4 ppg and Riddle is tied for second with 17.8 ppg.
38 Wins Over Last Two Years Among Mizzou Highs
Missouri has won a combined 38 games since the start of last year - a figure that ranks as the second-highest 2-year total in the last 17 seasons ... dating back to 1990, only the Cindy Stein-coached teams in 1999-00 and 2001-02 won more games as they totaled 40 between them ... when looking at regular-season totals only, the current total of 37 is one more than the aforementioned pair of teams.
Mizzou `D' Shutting Down Teams When It Matters
Much has been made lately about Missouri's ability to close out ball games ... while the Tiger offense has remained strong during the last three games, it has been the defense that has stepped up during the current win streak ... in the last six minutes of the wins at Kansas, Nebraska and at home against K-State, MU has held the opposition to just 25 percent shooting (8-of-25) and 23.1 percent from outside (3-of-13) ... Missouri also had a decisive scoring run to keep the momentum in its favor ... against KU it was a 10-0 run that made it 57-46 with 6:16 left; at Nebraska is was another 10-0 run that gave the Tigers a 45-42 lead with 8:09 to play as they outscored the Huskers 20-11 the rest of the way; a 12-2 run on Wednesday kept KSU at arms length before securing an eight-point victory.
Tigers Now 5-4 Against North Division Schools
With Missouri's 69-61 win over Kansas State on Wednesday, it moved to 5-4 against North Division teams this season ... the Tigers will play their final North game at home on Thursday against Kansas ... a win then would go a long way in helping the Tigers with Big 12 Championship seeding tie-breakers that may involve Colorado and K-State as all three are within a game of each other with two to play ... in the head-to-head meetings, Mizzou split with both schools and CU swept K-State ... CU enters its final two games with Kansas and at Nebraska at 4-4 against the North ... K-State is 2-7 with a home game versus Iowa State on Saturday.
If The Big 12 Championship Started Today...
If the Big 12 Championship started today, Missouri would be the 10 seed (based on losing the 8-9-10 tiebreaker with Texas and Colorado) and play Oklahoma State ... the Tigers, along with UT and CU sit just one game behind Oklahoma State and Texas Tech for sixth place with two to play... the combined Big 12 records of the Mizzou's two remaining opponents is 14-14 ... following Sunday's game at Oklahoma (11-3), the Tigers return home to face Kansas (3-11) on Senior Night at Mizzou Arena.
What's Left For The Bottom Eight
Since the Big 12 Championship doesn't start today, here is a look at what's left for the nine teams battling for seeds 4-12 ... co-leaders Baylor, Oklahoma and Texas A&M have already secured the top three seeds, while Nebraska and Iowa State are battling for the other remaining top-4 seed.
TEAM (Big 12 rec.) 2/24 2/25 2/28 3/1 Oklahoma (11-3) MU BU Texas A&M (11-3) BU UT Baylor (11-3) TAMU OU Nebraska (9-5) OSU CU Iowa State (8-6) KSU TTU Texas Tech (6-8) UT ISU Oklahoma State (6-8) NU KSU Texas (5-9) TTU TAMU Colorado (5-9) KU NU Missouri (5-9) OU KU Kansas State (4-10) ISU OSU Kansas (3-11) CU MU
Mizzou 12 Points Away From 8-6 Big 12 Record
Coaches and players will tell you that you can't worry about previous results and you need to concentrate on what's in front of you ... but a closer check of Missouri's 5-9 Big 12 mark and you can see why a number of coaches around the league have publicly said they don't want to see MU on their side of the Big 12 Championship bracket ... looking at their three closest losses and you will see that the Tigers are 12 points away from being 8-6 and tied for fifth with Iowa State ... in losses to Texas (79-77 ot), at Baylor (71-70) and against Texas A&M (69-63), Missouri held a lead in all three games at some point with less than 6:00 to play ... MU has also held early second-half leads in road setbacks to Colorado and Iowa State.
Brooks Heating Up At Same Time As Last Season
A year ago Tiffany Brooks averaged just 6.9 points in the Tigers' first 23 games before leading the team in scoring over the final eight contests with 14.8 ppg ... while her totals this season have been considerably higher and more consistent - 13.2 ppg all season - she has posted 13.8 ppg in Mizzou's last five.
Recapping Last Week
Missouri snapped a four-game losing streak and a six-game Big 12 road losing streak with a 10-point win at Kansas ... three night's later the Tigers made history by winning back-to-back Big 12 road games in the same week for just the second time since the league was formed ... it also was Mizzou's first over a ranked team in five tries this season.