Feb. 3, 2009
Complete Release in PDF Format 
COLUMBIA, Mo. - The University of Missouri women's basketball team (10-10, 1-6 Big 12) travels to Manhattan, Kan., on Wednesday, Feb. 4 for a contest against the No. 14/18 Kansas State Wildcats (18-2, 5-2) at 7 p.m. The game will be televised on FSN Kansas City and DIRECTV channel 672 with Brian Smoller providing play-by-play and Missy Heidrick serving as the color analyst. The Wildcats hold a 39-34 advantage in the all-time series, including a 81-52 win over the Tigers on March 1, 2008.
Up Next
Missouri hosts Border Showdown foe Kansas (12-7, 1-6) at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 7, in a game. The contest will be broadcast live on FSN with Brent Stover serving as play-by-play announcer and Brenda VanLangen as the color analyst. Mizzou is then off until Saturday, Feb. 14 when the team travels to Waco, Texas, to face No. 7/8 Baylor at 12:30 p.m. in the Bears' Women's Basketball Coaches Association Pink Zone.
Scouting Kansas State
The Wildcats boast a 18-2 overall record and a 5-2 mark in Big 12 play. The squad was a perfect 13-0 in non-conference games and has not lost at home yet this year. The team is coming off a 60-50 loss at No. 22 Iowa State on Saturday.
Kansas State allows just 49.8 ppg. to rank first nationally and is fifth in the country in both turnovers per game (13.5) and assist/turnover ratio (1.15).
Junior forward Ashley Sweat leads the Wildcats with 15.8 ppg. on 52.3 percent shooting from the floor. Senior guard Shalee Lehning ranks first nationally with 8.2 apg. to go along with 11.9 ppg. and a team high 7.5 rpg. Senior forward Marlies Gipson adds 13.1 ppg., 6.9 rpg. and is ranked fourth in the nation with 3.4 bpg.
Head Coach Deb Patterson is in her 13th season at the helm of the team and sports a 258-140 record with the program.
Tigers fall at No. 2 Oklahoma
The No. 2 Oklahoma Sooners handed the Missouri women's basketball team a 78-56 loss on Saturday afternoon in Norman, Okla.
Senior Alyssa Hollins led the Tigers with 17 points and sophomore Shakara Jones posted 11. Additionally, sophomore RaeShara Brown had team highs with eight rebounds, five assists and four steals to go with six points.
Oklahoma started strong from the opening tip but Missouri remained within striking distance early on. With 14:14 on the clock, Hollins found Brown for a layup to get the Tigers within four, 11-7. Two and a half minutes later Jones made a jumper to cut the Sooners' lead to 16-11.
The home team then outscored Mizzou 8-3 over the next 2:07 to give Oklahoma an 11-point advantage, 24-13, with 9:27 remaining.
After junior Amanda Hanneman hit a three-pointer to get the Tigers within 10, 20-10, the Sooners scored the final 15 points of the half to enter the break with a 45-20 advantage.
The Tigers came out firing in the second with a 10-2 run, including eight from Hollins, for a 47-30 score with 18:18 left. Oklahoma responded with a 12-2 run of its own to build a 62-30 lead with 12:24 on the clock.
Missouri closed the contest with a 26-16 run, when seven different players scored.
Brown showcases complete game
Sophomore RaeShara Brown was all over the stat sheet after Mizzou's game at Oklahoma on Jan. 31. The guard recorded team highs in rebounds (eight), assists (five) and steals (four) to go along with six points.
So far this season Brown has led the Tigers in steals a team high nine times, rebounds a team second best eight times, assists a team second best five times and points once.
Flores earns first start
Freshman Christine Flores earned the first start of her career against Oklahoma on Jan. 31. During the contest the forward played a carer high 24 minutes and tied personal bests with two assists and two steals, to go along with two points and a block.
She has seen action in all seven conference games and has increased her minutes per game from 8.5 in the non-conference schedule to 10.6 in Big 12 play. Additionally, Flores recorded just 0.2 bpg. in non-conference games but has increased that number to 1.3 in league contests.
Hollins hitting the boards
Over the last eight games senior Alyssa Hollins has nearly doubled her rebounding output. The guard averaged 2.6 rpg. over the first 11 games of the year to exactly match her career average. Since she tied a career high eight eight boards against Duquesne on Jan. 3, Hollins has averaged 2.8 rpg.
She now ranks fourth on the team with 3.6 rpg.
Hanneman finds her stroke
Junior Amanda Hanneman broke out against the Sooners on Jan. 31 as the tied a season high eigh eight points on 3-of-7 shooting from the floor and 2-of-6 shooting from the three-point line. The game marked the first time since the Kansas game on Jan. 14 that Hanneman entered the scoring column, although she did have three rebounds in last week's contest with Oklahoma State.
Hanneman was slowed with injuries in the preseason but always is a threat to score when she steps on the court.
Mills blocking up a storm
Redshirt freshman Bekah Mills recorded a career high four blocks against Oklahoma State on Jan. 28 depsite standing just 5'9". The total was one more than her previous best, accomplished against both SEMO and Nebraska, and stands as the highest individual single-game total for the Tigers this season.
The guard has 19 blocks on the year and is tied with teammate Jessra Johnson with a team high 1.0 bpg.
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 seven league contests.
| Category | Big 12 | Non-Conf. |
| Points | 8.3 | 5.2 |
| FG% | 37.3 | 34.7 |
| 3FG% | 40.0 | 0.0 |
| FT% | 75.0 | 57.7 |
| Steals | 2.7 | 2.4 |
| Minutes | 28.3 | 26.2 |
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 10.4 spg. on the year to rank second in the Big 12, behind Texas A&M (12.4). The team is led by sophomore RaeShara Brown's 2.5 spg., which is tied for second in the Big 12 and only a mere one-tenth behind leader Danielle Gant of 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 17 points against Oklahoma on Jan. 31 Hollins now has 1,196 in her career, good for 16th place on the all-time list. She is 23 points shy of passing Lisa Sanbothe (87-91) for 15th 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 Oklahoma on Jan. 31, she now has 208 in her career, 66 more than the second-best total.
Additionally, last season she made 90 threes to smash Amanda Lassiter's old single season mark of 65.