Jan. 23, 2009
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COLUMBIA, Mo. - The University of Missouri women's basketball team (10-7, 1-3) hosts the University of Colorado Buffaloes (8-8, 0-4)on Saturday, Jan. 24 in a 6:30 p.m. game at Mizzou Arena. Colorado holds a 37-26 lead in the all-time series and claimed a 63-47 win in Boulder, Colo., the last time the two teams played.
Up Next
Missouri returns home on Wednesday, Jan. 28 for a 6:30 p.m. contest against the No. 24 Oklahoma State Cowgirls (12-4, 1-2). The Tigers will then travel to Norman, Okla., for a game against the No. 3 Oklahoma Sooners (15-2, 4-0) at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 31.
Scouting Colorado
The Buffaloes enter their game against the Tigers With a 8-8 overall record and a 0-4 mark in Big 12 play. The team has started conference play against the best, with losses to Baylor (63-50), Oklahoma State (79-43), Texas (62-32) and Oklahoma (72-58). In its last game, Colorado played the Sooners even through the first 20 minutes but eventually succombed to the No. 3 team in the country.
Sophomore Brittany Spears leads the Buffs with 17.8 ppg., which ranks third in the conference, to go along with a team high 7.6 rpg. Joining Spears in double figures are senior Kara Richards, who averages 11.6 ppg. and 6.9 rpg., and junior Bianca Smith, who adds 10.0 ppg. and has made 37 three-pointers on the year.
Head Coach Kathy McConnell-Miller is in herfourth year at the helm of the Buffaloes and sports a 49-61 record with the program.
Tigers fall to No. 22 Iowa State
Missouri suffered a 65-42 defeat at the hands of No. 22 Iowa State on Wednesday night in Ames, Iowa.
Redshirt freshman Bekah Mills paced Mizzou with nine points and three steals.
Both offenses started slow to open the contest. After a layup from Mills got the Tigers within four, 13-9, with 7:38 remaining, the Cyclones turned up their game and went on a 19-5 run for the rest of the first half. A driving layup from Alison Lacey with 1.4 seconds on the clock gave the home team a 32-14 halftime advantage.
Iowa State remained hot in the second half and opened up a 46-18 advantage when Denae Stuckey hit a layup with 13:08 on the clock. The Cyclones upped their lead to 60-29 after a layup from Ashley Arlen at the 5:26 mark.
The Tigers outscored Iowa State 13-5 to close out the contest, including seven points from sophomore RaeShara Brown.
Mills stands out against Cyclones
Redshirt freshman Bekah Mills had an all-around game against the Cyclones on Jan. 21. The guard made four-of-eight shots from the field for a team high nine points to go along with an assist, a block and three steals. The game marked the third time this year Mills has led the Tigers in points and a team high eighth time she led the squad in steals.
Mills has started 14 games in 2008-08, including the last 13, and is averaging 6.7 ppg., 2.9 rpg., 1.7 spg. and has 14 blocks despite standing just 5'9".
Tigers taking care of the ball
Over their first 17 games, Mizzou is averaging just 15.8 turnovers per game, which ranks fourth in the Big 12 in that category. On Nov. 22 the Tigers recorded a season low nine turnovers in a win over Western Illinois.
Additionally, Missouri forces its opponents to commit 20.5 turnovers per game to rank second among Big 12 schools. Overall the team ranks third in the league with a +4.7 turnover margin, helped along by a Big 12 second-best 10.7 spg.
The Tigers have committed less turnovers than their opponents in 13 of their 17 games this year.
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.
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 five points against Nebraska on Jan. 17 Hollins now has 1,154 in her career, good for 19th place on the all-time list. She is eight points shy of passing Kerensa Barr (00-03) for 18th place on the all-time list.
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 seven 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 72.2 percent (78-108) from the line.
In just conference games, the Tigers rank third in the league shooting at a 76.7 percent (46-60) 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 77.8 percent (14-18).