Jan. 21, 2009

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COLUMBIA, Mo. - The University of Missouri women's basketball team (10-6, 1-2) travels to Ames, Iowa, on Wednesday for a 7 p.m. matchup with No. 22 Iowa State (13-4, 1-2) at Hilton Coliseum. Missouri holds a 45-21 lead in the all-time series but Iowa State has claimed the last three meetings, including a 58-54 Cyclone victory at Mizzou Arena on Feb. 27, 2008.

Up Next
Missouri will play host to the Colorado Buffaloes (8-7, 0-3) on Saturday, Jan. 24 at 6:30 p.m. and to the No. 22 Oklahoma State Cowgirls (12-4, 1-2) at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 28.

Scouting Iowa State
The Cyclones enter their game against the Tigers ranked 22nd the the ESPN / USA Today Coaches' Poll and receiving votes in the Associated Press poll. After an impressive 13-2 start that included wins over Vanderbilt and Oklahoma State, Iowa State has lost its last two games, a 68-57 loss at Baylor and a 59-52 defeat at the hands of Kansas State.

At home, the Cylones are a perfect 9-0 and average almsot 9,000 fans per game at Hilton Coliseum.

Senior Heather Ezell leads a balanced Iowa State attack with 11.6 ppg., including 44 three-pointers and 3.3 apg. Junior Alison Lacey scores 10.5 ppg. and pulls down a team high 6.1 rpg. while sophomore Kelsey Bolte rounds out the double figure scorers with 10.2 ppg.

Head Coach Bill Fennelly is in his 14th year at the helm of the Cyclones and sports a 293-136 record with the program.

Tigers pick up first Big 12 victory
Missouri earned its first Big 12 Conference victory as the team held on for a 67-66 victory over Nebraska on Saturday night at Mizzou Arena.

Up one point, 67-66, with eight seconds remaining, Missouri thwarted Nebraska's last-second heroics as sophomore RaeShara Brown grabbed a steal with eight seconds on the clock. Senior Alyssa Hollins missed the front end of a one-and-one with four seconds left but the Huskers could not get off a decent shot attempt for the 67-66 Tiger victory.

Junior Jessra Johnson paced the Tigers with 18 points, including 14 in the second half, and nine rebounds. Hollins had 15 points and three steals while sophomore Shakara Jones added 12 points.

The teams played even over the first few minutes until Hollins found Jones for a layup as the Tigers took a 9-5 lead with 16:19 on the clock. Nebraska responded with a 7-0 run and took a 12-9 advantage when Kaitlyn Burke made a jumper at the 14:01 mark.

Down 25-21, Mizzou reeled off nine straight points as Brown, Hollins, Johnson and Jones all scored for a 32-25 Tiger lead with 1:56 left in the frame. Missouri lead 34-29 after redshirt freshman Bekah Mills hit a pair of free throws but the Huskers scored seven unanswered points over the final 1:22 to tie the contest at 34-34 at the half.

The Tigers used an 11-5 run to start the second half to gain a 45-39 lead after Mills hit a three with 15:53 on the clock. The Huskers came back and took a 54-53 advantage at the 8:28 mark when Yvonne Turner connected on a three of her own.

A 12-4 run by Missouri, capped by a layup from Jones, gave the home team a seven-point lead, 65-58, with 4:08 remaining. Nebraska came back strong and outscored the Tigers 8-2 over the final four minutes but committed the costly turnover with eight seconds left in the game.

Mizzou near perfect from the line
Over the first 19:56 seconds in its game against Nebraska on Jan. 17 the Missouri Tigers did not miss a free throw. The team, which struggled early in the year from the charity stripe, made its first 10 attempts from the line.

The Huskers fouled senior Alyssa Hollins, Mizzou's top free throw shooter this year, with four seconds remaining but the guard failed to make the front end of a one-and one for Missouri's first miss of the night.

Despite the miss, the Tigers shot a season high 90.7 percent (10-11) from the line against Nebraska, upping its previous season best of 83.3 (15-18), set just seven days earlier against Texas A&M.

Johnson surges in the second half
After a quiet first half in Mizzou's victory over Nebraska on Jan. 17, junior Jessra Johnson turned up her game in the second half of the contest. The forward scored the Tigers' first six points in the second frame and scored 14 of her 18 points in game's final 20 minutes.

Johnson also hit all four of her free throw attemps and finished with a team high nine rebounds.

Tigers improving from the charity stripe
A weakness the beginning of the season, free throw shooting has turned into a strength of the Tigers over the last six games. Mizzou entered its game with SEMO shooting just 57.2 percent (103-180) from the charity stripe. That day the Tigers shot a then-season high 76.9 (10-13) from the line. Since (and including the SEMO game) Missouri is shooting 73.5 percent (75-102) from the line.

In just conference games, the Tigers rank second in the league shooting at a 79.6 percent (43-54) clip.

Some of Mizzou's drastic improvement can be attributed to junior Jessra Johnson and sophomore RaeShara Brown. Johnson is a perfect 13-of-13 from the charity stripe during the six game streak while Brown is shooting 86.7 percent (13-15).

Jones returns to form
Sophomore Shakara Jones entered the Jan. 6 game against Chicago State with just three double digit outputs in the team's first 12 games. The forward has upped her offensive game since then and notched double figures in each of the past four contests.

Against the Cougars, Jones got back on track with 13 points, on 5-of-9 shooting from the floor and 3-of-4 shooting from the charity stripe, to go along with five boards.

Four days later, Jones hit 6-of-7 shots from the floor to finish with a team high 14 points. In games against Kansas and Nebraska, the, she contributed 14 and 12 points, respectively.

Overall this year, the forward is shooting a team high 57.8 percent from the field and is tops in the league with a 70.8 (17-24) field goal percentage in conference games.

Hollins joins 1,000-point club
A jumper with 12:37 left in regulation against Holy Cross on Nov. 29 gave senior Alyssa Hollins the 999th and 1,000th points in her career, making the guard the 26th player in Mizzou history to record 1,000 points.

With 15 points against Nebraska on Jan. 17 Hollins now has 1,149 in her career, good for 19th place on the all-time list. She is 13 points shy of passing Kerensa Barr (00-03) for 18th place on the all-time list.

Hollins ups career three-point record
As a junior last year, senior Alyssa Hollins became the program's most prolific three-point field goal shooter, as she set Mizzou's career three-point record. With three treys against Nebraska on Jan. 17, she now has 200 in her career, 58 more than the second-best total.

Additionally, last season she made 90 threes to smash Amanda Lassiter's old single season mark of 65.