Dec. 14, 2007
COLUMBIA, Mo. - The Missouri women's basketball team looks to return to winning ways on Saturday, Dec. 15 with a game against the UMKC Kangaroos at 1 p.m. at Mizzou Arena. Missouri enters its contest with UMKC with a 8-1 advantage in the all-time series. The two schools last met on Nov. 25, 1997, where the Tigers recorded a 74-56 victory over the visiting Kangaroos.
Children will have the opportunity to take pictures with Santa on the concourse prior to the game.
Up next
The Tigers return to the court on Wednesday, Dec. 19 with a tilt against Illinois at 6:30 p.m. The contest will be televised on KZOU in Columbia and MetroSports in the Kansas City area. Mizzou then travels to Charlottesville, Va., to compete in the Marriott Cavalier Classic with Delaware State, Marshall and host Virginia Dec. 28-29.
Scouting the Kangaroos
Under the direction of first year head coach Candace White-Whitaker, the UMKC Kangaroos are 5-5 on the year with wins over Central Arkansas (73-63), Air Force (65-59), Colorado State (76-62), Saint Louis (73-70) and Texas State (80-68). The Kangaroos have lost to Kansas (64-58), San Francisco (78-66), South Alabama (69-55), IPFW (62-51) and Oakland (78-50).
Sophomore guard Chazny Morris paces UMKC with 18.3 ppg. and 6.0 rpg., while senior center Alysa Klein averages 12.5 ppg., 5.9 rpg. and 1.8 bpg. Senior guard Sierra Radke dishes out 3.5 apg. and junior guard Taushelle Rushing averages 3.0 spg.
Tigers lose heartbreaker
Stephen F. Austin overcame an early second half 18-point deficit to defeat Missouri 84-81 in overtime in the championship game of the CenturyTel Tiger Tournament on Dec. 8.
The Tigers entered the second half up 40-26 and built their lead to 18 but Stephen F. Austin came roaring back to tie the game in the final minute and send the contest into overtime. Mizzou shot 20 percent (2-of-10) in the overtime session and only managed five points as SFA secured its dramatic 84-81 comeback victory.
Sophomore Jessra Johnson led Mizzou with 21 points and 13 boards and freshman Shakara Jones added 17.
Scott shines in loss
One bright spot for the Tigers in their overtime loss to Stephen F. Austin was the play of sophomore Marissa Scott. A fixture in the starting lineup all season, Scott entered the SFA contest as one of Mizzou's best post defenders but had yet to make much of an impact on the offensive end.
Against SFA, Scott took only four shots but made all three of her 3-point attempts to post a career high nine points to go along with eight rebounds.
Scott has also been a menace on the boards of late, averaging 7.8 rpg. over the past five contests.
Hollins has career night
Junior Alyssa Hollins erupted for a career high 28 points in Mizzou's 69-52 win over Mississippi Valley State in the first game of the CenturyTel Tiger Tournament on Dec. 7.
Hollins shot 10-of-20 from the floor on the night, hit five of her six free throw attempts and tied her career best with six rebounds in the game. Her point output is the most scored by a Tiger this season, just besting freshman Shakara Jones' total of 27 in the season opener.
Hollins, Johnson named to all-tournament team
Junior Alyssa Hollins and sophomore Jessra Johnson were both named the the all-tournament team of the CenturyTel Tiger Tournament after two strong outings last weekend.
Hollins averaged 22.0 ppg., including a career best 28 against Mississippi Valley State, and Johnson averaged 21.0 ppg. and 10.5 rpg.
Tigers win without leading scorer
Playing without leading scorer Jessra Johnson, the Tigers secured a 70-61 win over Texas State at Mizzou Arena on Dec. 1. Freshman Shakara Jones led the charge with her second career double-double after recording 20 points and 13 rebounds and junior Alyssa Hollins scored 18, including 16 in the second half.
Richbow boards with the best
Entering the Texas State game with a career high five rebounds, sophomore Toy Richbow used all of her 5'6" frame to pull down 10 boards against the Bobcats.
Richbow had recorded five rebounds against Eastern Illinois on Nov. 15 but the guard breezed by that mark with her numbers against Texas State. Her four offensive rebounds in the contest almost set a new career mark in their own.
Cold shooting hampers Tigers
Missouri shot a season-low 26.2 percent (16-61) from the floor in the Tiger's 66-53 loss to Arkansas on Nov. 28, including 21.2 percent (7-33) in the first half. Despite the cold shooting, Mizzou only trailed the Lady Razorbacks 31-25 at the half and cut the deficit to 51-50 with just over six minutes left in the game.
Mizzou's previous season-low in field goal percentage was .400 (20-50) in the loss to Samford.
Three spree
In a game where the Tigers were ice cold from inside the arc, Missouri stayed close with Arkansas on hot shooting from the 3-point line. The Tigers made six threes in the first half on 6-of-13 shooting to keep within striking distance of the Lady Razorbacks.
Mizzou's barrage of threes continued to the second half, where the squad sunk another five 3-pointers for a game total of 11 and shot 42.3 percent from behind the arc.
Free throws back on track
After struggling from the free throw line in their first four games with a .467 (21-45) percentage, the Tigers came out of their funk and shot .783 (18-23) percent against Robert Morris and Arkansas.
Leading the charge for the Tigers is sophomore Jessra Johnson. The forward is a combined 30-of-24 (.882) in the past four games and has shot more than half of the teams free throw attempts this year.
Scott on rebounding roll
In the first 14 games of her Mizzou career, sophomore Marissa Scott pulled down a total of 13 rebounds. The past three games has been a different story for the forward, who has tallied 28 total rebounds against Robert Morris (11), Arkansas (nine) and Texas State (eight). Her per game rebounding mark has increased from 3.0 in the first four games of the season to 5.7 thanks to her performances the last five contests.
Hollins secures win over Robert Morris
Junior guard Alyssa Hollins made a 15-foot jumper with two seconds remaining to give the Tigers a 74-73 win over Robert Morris in Mizzou's second game in the FAU Thanksgiving Tournament. After the Tigers committed turnovers on three straight possessions that allowed the Colonials to go ahead 73-72 with seconds left, Hollins received an inbounds pass, dribbled around a defender and nailed the winning shot.
The basket gave Hollins 22 points in the game, one above her previous career high, and shot 10-of-20 from the field to go along with six assists.
Hanneman shines
While many of her teammates struggled in Mizzou's loss to Samford on Nov. 24, sophomore Amanda Hanneman took advantage of her increased playing time and led the Tigers with a career high 16 points on 6-of-11 from the floor and 4-of-6 from the 3-point arc.
Hanneman was rewarded for her efforts with her first career start the following day against Robert Morris and played 22 minutes.
Hollins named to all-tournament team
Junior Alyssa Hollins was named to the FAU Thanksgiving Classic All-Tournament Team after averaging 16.5 points in Mizzou's two games in Boca Raton, Fla. She scored 11 points against Samford on Nov. 24 but really shined against Robert Morris, as the guard posted 22 points, including the game-winning shot.
Johnson has career night
Sophomore Jessra Johnson filled up the stat sheet in Mizzou's contest with Eastern Illinois on Nov. 15. Over the course of the game, Johnson posted 22 points and pulled down 19 rebounds both of which were career highs. Her 19 rebounds were the most by a Tiger since Evan Unrau recorded 20 against Texas on Jan. 10, 2001.
Johnson bested her previous score total of 21 set in the season opener and rebound mark of 10, which she recorded against at Stanford last season.
Shak attack
Freshman Shakara Jones stole the show in her Missouri debut with a game-high 27 points and 14 rebounds in Mizzou's win over Murray State. Jones' point total set a new Tiger mark for freshmen in their Missouri debut and was the highest total in a season opener since Julie Helms poured in 38 in 1999.
Jones responded in Mizzou's second game against Eastern Illinois with 15 points.
All in the family
Freshman forward Shakara Jones becomes the second member of her family to don the No. 44 jersey on the Tiger hardwood. Her father, Ron Jones, played for Mizzou under Norm Stewart from 1980-84. Known as a defensive specialist, Ron held Michael Jordan to 13 points in Missouri's 64-60 upset of North Carolina in 1982.
Injury bug hits early
Freshman guard Bekah Mills will be forced to sit out her inaugural Tiger campaign after suffering an ACL tear in her right knee at practice on Oct. 27. She looked strong in the preseason and would have challenged for the starting position.