Jan. 27, 2009
Complete Release in PDF Format 
COLUMBIA, Mo. - The University of Missouri women's basketball team (10-8, 1-4 Big 12) hosts the No. 25 Oklahoma State Cowgirls (12-5, 1-3) on Wednesday, Jan. 28 in a 6:30 p.m. game at Mizzou Arena. The Tigers hold a 27-22 advantage in the all-time series but the Cowgirls picked up a 76-41 victory in the last meeting.
Up Next
Missouri travels to Norman, Okla., for a game against the No. 2 Oklahoma Sooners (16-2, 5-0) at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 31 before hitting the road again on Wednesday, Feb. 4 for a contest against No. 12/14 Kansas State at 7 p.m. The game with the Wildcats will be broadast live on FSN Kansas City.
Scouting Oklahoma State
The Cowgirls enter Mizzou Arena with a 12-5 overall record and a 1-3 mark in Big 12 play. The team opened conference play with a tough schedule, leading to losses against No. 5 Baylor (75-57), No. 7/9 Texas A&M (60-50), and Iowa State (63-55). Oklahoma State's Big 12 win came in a 79-43 contest against Colorado.
As a team, Oklahoma State averages 75.6 ppg., which ranks 12th nationally. The squad also records 10.3 spg. and has a +5.5 turnover margin.
The Cowgirls are led by junior guard Andrea Riley, whose 22.6 ppg. and 6.7 apg. rank fifth and sixth, respectively, nationally. The guard also nabs 2.4 spg. Senior forward Shaunte' Smith is second on the squad with 11.2 ppg. to go along with a team high 7.6 rpg. and junior forward Tegan Cunningham rounds out the squad's double figure scorers with 10.7 ppg.
Head Coach Kurt Budke is in his fourth season at the helm of the team and sports a 65-46 record with the team, including a 59-24 mark over the past three-plus years.
Tigers suffer loss against Colorado
Missouri staged a late second half rally but could not pull out the victory as the team fell to Colorado 61-56 Saturday night at Mizzou Arena.
Sophomore RaeShara Brown scored a career high 17 points and nabbed a team high three steals to pace to Tigers. Junior Jessra Johnson dropped in 14 points to go along with six rebounds.
With the game tied at 4-4, senior Alyssa Hollins sank a three-pointer, hit a layup off a free from Brown, then found sophomore Shakara Jones for a basket as the Tigers went up 11-4 with 15:09 left in the first. A trey and a jumper from Johnson as well as a basket from Brown upped Mizzou's lead to 10, 18-10, with 13:18 on the clock.
The Buffs responded with a 14-3 run over the next 7:10 to take a 22-21 advantage. Colorado kept up its strong play throughout the remainder of the half and entered the break with a 35-30 advantage.
After the Buffaloes scored the first five points of the second frame for a 40-30 lead, Missouri rattled off the next eight, including five points, an assist and a steal from Brown, as the Tigers got within 40-38 with 15:38 left.
Colorado used another small run to go back up 11, 52-41, with 11:09 remaining after Courtney Dunn hit a three. While down 10, 54-44, the Tigers reeled off seven consecutive points to pull within four, 54-50, with 6:39 on the clock.
Mizzou stayed close in the waning minutes and a layup from Brown cut the Buff's lead to 59-56 with 44 seconds left but the Tigers could not get any closer.
Brown on fire against Buffs
Sophomore RaeShara Brown had a career day against Colorado on Jan. 24. The guard posted a career high 17 points (four above her previous personal best) on 6-of-11 shooting from the floor and 4-of-6 shooting from the charity stripe. She also hit only the second three-pointer in her career and nabbed a team high three steals. The game marked the first time Brown has led the Tigers in points and the third double figure output of her career.
Brown's previous career high came against Kansas on Jan. 14 when she scored 13 points on 7-of-9 shooting from the free throw line.
Mizzou one of youngest Big 12 teams
Missouri is tied as the youngest team in the Big 12, based on average year of a team's starters. The Tigers share the honor with Colorado. The calculation was based on a formula that counts class year as years of experience (senior = 4, junior = 3, sophomore = 2, freshman = 1).
Rank. Team Avg. Year of Starters
1. Missouri 2.4
Colorado 2.4
3. Kansas 2.8
Nebraska 2.8
Oklahoma 2.8
6. Texas Tech 3.0
7. Baylor 3.4
Iowa State 3.4
Texas 3.4
Texas A&M 3.4
11. Kansas State 3.6
Oklahoma State 3.6
Brown connects in conference play
Since the start of Big 12 play on Jan. 10, sophomore RaeShara Brown has upped her production in nearly every statistical category. Additionally, the guard has scored a new career high in two of the five league contests.
Category Big 12 Non-Conf.
Points 9.6 5.2
FG% 40.0 34.7
3FG% 50.0 0.0
FT% 70.0 57.7
Steals 2.6 2.4
Minutes 27.6 26.2
Tigers taking care of the ball
Over their first 18 games, Mizzou is averaging just 15.6 turnovers per game, which ranks third 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 20.6 turnovers per game to rank second among Big 12 schools. Overall the team ranks third in the league with a +5.0 turnover margin, helped along by a Big 12 second-best 10.7 spg.
The Tigers have committed less turnovers than their opponents in 14 of their 18 games this year.
Steals galore
Over a three-game span from Dec. 3-Dec. 14, the Tigers have racked up a total of 57 steals for an average of 19.0 spg. The team started its steal party with 17 against Toledo on Dec. 3 and then did one better when 18 against Bradley on Dec. 9. Five days later, the Tigers posted 22 steals, the highest total in the Big 12 this year. Before the three-game stretch, the team's season high was 12 in a game with Western Illinois.
Missouri is averaging 10.7 spg. on the year to rank second in the Big 12, behind Texas A&M (12.5).