Feb. 19, 2010
COLUMBIA, Mo. - The University of Missouri women's basketball team will travel to Ames, Iowa, for a contest against the No. 13/12 Iowa State Cyclones on Saturday, Feb. 20 at 7 p.m. at Hilton Coliseum. The Tigers own a 45-24 lead in the all-time series but the Cyclones picked up a 65-39 victory in Columbia on Feb. 7, 2010.
UP NEXT
Mizzou returns home on Tuesday, Feb. 23 to host the Colorado Buffaloes at 6:30 p.m. in the NCAA's Take a Kid to the Game Day. All children will receive free admission with a paid adult ticket and free growing charts will be given away at the game.
The Tigers then hit the road for a rematch with No. 3 Nebraska at 7:05 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 27 in Lincoln, Neb.
SCOUTING IOWA STATE
The Cyclones enter the contest with a 19-5 overall record and a 7-4 mark in Big 12 Conference play. The team is 7-2 in its last nine games, with the latest loss at the hands of undefeated and No. 3 Nebraska, 70-60, on Wednesday. Iowa State was without leading scorer Alison Lacey for that contest, who sat out after suffering a concussion at practice on Tuesday.
The Cyclones rank first nationally in three-point field goal percentage at 41.7 percent. They also clock in at eighth in scoring defense (53.3), rebounding margin (+9.8), and three-point field goals per game (8.5).
Lacey leads the team with 17.3 ppg. and 6.7 apg. Her 3.2 assist/turnover ratio is ranks first nationally. She also ranks seventh in the nation with 6.7 apg. and 10th in free throw percentage at 88.8 percent. Junior Kelsey Bolte joins Lacey in double figures with 12.4 ppg., while freshman Chelsea Poppens grabs 6.2 rpg.
Head Coach Bill Fennelly is in his 15th season at the helm of the Cyclones and has a 326-146 record with the team.
LAST TIME VS. THE CYCLONES
The Iowa State Cyclones earned a 65-39 victory over Mizzou on Sunday, Feb. 7 at Mizzou Arena.
Junior RaeShara Brown posted a team high 12 points for Missouri.
Alison Lacey led the Cyclones with 18 points and seven assists. Chelsea Poppens scored 14 points and Kelsey Bolte added 13.
LAST TIME OUT
The undefeated and No. 3 Nebraska Cornhuskers scored the game's final 10 points to earn an 82-78 come-from-behind victory over the Missouri Saturday afternoon at Mizzou Arena. The four-point win marked the smallest margin of victory for the Huskers all season.
With the Tigers leading by six, 78-72, and 3:15 remaining in the game, the Huskers used a jumper from Kelsey Griffin and a three-pointer from Cory Montgomery on consecutive possessions to pull within one, 78-77, with 2:04 left. Two free throws by Yvonne Turner then gave the visitors a 79-78 advantage with 41 seconds on the clock.
Trailing by one point, Mizzou committed a turnover, which led to Nebraska hitting one-of-two free throws for an 80-78 advantage with 37 seconds left. The Huskers again hit one-of-two shots from the charity stripe after the Tigers turned the ball over again. Senior Amanda Hanneman's potential game-tying three with 12 seconds remaining rimmed out and Nebraska hit a free throw with six seconds on the clock to preserve the comeback victory, 82-78.
Senior Jessra Johnson led four Tigers in double figures with 21 points. Junior RaeShara Brown posted 14 points, five assists and five steals. Sophomore Christine Flores scored 14 points and Hanneman added 11.
Mizzou used an old fashioned three-point play from Flores as the team took its biggest lead of the game, 30-22, with 7:13 remaining in the first frame. Nebraska used 14-2 run over the next five and a half minutes to go on top 36-32 but the Tigers battled back to knot the score at 38-38 when junior Shakara Jones hit a layup with 30 seconds remaining. The Huskers entered the break with a 41-38 advantage after Dominique Kelly hit a layup and the ensuring free throw.
Nebraska started strong in the second half and eventually built a seven-point lead, 63-56, with 10:44 remaining in the contest. Missouri got going offensively and used an 11-1 run, with seven points from Johnson and four from Brown, as the Tigers went up 67-64 with 8:09 left.
A layup from Husker Yvonne Turner brought the visitors within one, 73-72, with 4:31 on the clock but the Tigers used a three-pointer from Hanneman and a jumper from Johnson for a 78-72 Tiger advantage with 3:15 remaining in the contest.
TIGERS 11TH-BEST TURNOVER TEAM
Missouri has taken care of the ball well all season, as the team ranks 11th in the nation with just 14.3 turnovers per contest. Overall on the year, Mizzou has committed fewer turnovers than its opponents in 17 of 24 games.
The Tigers committed just six turnovers in the team's loss to Iowa State on Feb. 7. The total is the lowest of the season, besting the 10 given up against both Northern Iowa and the second meeting with Kansas.
The mark matched three other outputs of six turnovers for the Tigers since the 1992-93 season. The team committed just six against Nicholl's State on Dec. 11, 2005, Kansas on Feb. 7, 1999 and Kansas State on Jan. 10, 1993. You have to go all the way back to Jan. 30, 1988 for a lesser output, when the Tigers lost just four turnovers against Oklahoma State.
TIGERS COME CLOSEST TO STOPPING NU
Missouri's 82-78 defeat at the hands of No. 3 Nebraska was the closest a team has come to bringing down the undefeated Huskers all season.
Entering the game, Nebraska had a average margin of victory of +22.8 ppg. The Huskers' closest margin of victory was a five-point win, 76-71, at Miami on Dec. 5.
The 78 points Missouri scored also marked the second most points allowed by Nebraska all season, after a 79-point output by Texas on Jan. 12.
BROWN SHOWCASES COMPLETE GAME
Junior RaeShara Brown had her most complete game of the season in Mizzou's narrow 82-78 loss to No. 3 Nebraska on Feb. 13. The guard shot 7-of-10 from the floor for 14 points, to go along with game highs with five assists and five steals. Brown was all over the floor in the first 20 minutes, when she hit 4-of-5 shots and swiped all five of her steals.
The game marked just the second time in her career she scored in double figures and tallied at least five assists and five steals. Brown also accomplished the feat against No. 13 Oklahoma on Jan. 20 when she posted 12 points, five assists and five steals.
MIZZOU TAKES ADVANTAGE OF FREEBIES
Against Nebraska on Feb. 13, the Tigers made 14-of-15 free throws as the team shot 93.3 percent from the charity stripe. The output was a season high for Mizzou, besting the 85.7 percent (6-7) the Tigers shot against Kansas State on Jan. 13.
The 93.3 percent also marked the highest free throw output for Missouri since the squad was a perfect 10-of-10 against Illinois on Dec. 21, 2007.
TIGERS STRONG OFF THE BENCH
Mizzou has enjoyed strong bench play throughout the season with 30.7 percent of the team's scoring coming from the bench. Overall, the Tigers average 19.5 ppg. from the bench, compared to 12.5 for opponents.
Missouri's bench has outscored the opposing bench 18 times in 24 games this season, including 16 of the past 17 games.
Only twice this year has the Tigers' bench failed to score at least 10 points (six points against Florida State, eight points against Iowa State).
Against Texas-Pan American, 54 of Missouri's 83 total points came from the bench, a season high.
BROWN ENTERS CAREER TOP-10
Junior RaeShara Brown moved into 10th place on MU's career steals list against Texas A&M on Feb. 3 and now sits in ninth-place with 182 career steals. She needs three more to pass Amanda Lassiter for eighth place. Just 66 steals away from Joni Davis' career record of 248, Brown seems destined to overtake the Tiger great sometime next season.
The guard, who leads the Big 12 with 3.3 spg., has 79 steals so far this year. Her season total stands seventh all-time and she needs just three more to pass Joni Davis for sixth on the list. If Brown records five steals, she will move into fifth-place on the single-season list, passing Amy Fordham.
SECOND HALF SQUAD
In 10 of 11 Big 12 Conference games, Missouri has scored more points in the second half than the first half. The team's one exception was the game with Kansas State on Jan. 13.
In those 10 games, the Tigers have scored 329 points in the second half compared to 233 points in the first frame.
BROWN SEVENTH NATIONALLY IN STEALS
Junior RaeShara Brown leads the Big 12 and ranks seventh nationally with 79 steals on the year for an average of 3.3 spg., 23 more than the next closest total in the conference. Most recently she grabbed five against Nebraska on Saturday.
If she keeps on her current pace, Brown will have a chance to break Amanda Lassiter's single-season steals record of 98.
Brown led the conference in steals last year with 2.7 spg. and 79 total on the year, which is the seventh best single-season total in Tiger history.
JOHNSON REACHES MILESTONE
With a layup to start scoring in the second of Missouri's game against Bradley on Dec. 5 senior Jessra Johnson etched her name in the MU record book. The basket marked the 999th and 1,000th points in her Tiger career, making her the 27th player in Missouri history to score at least 1,000 points.
Johnson now stands in 19th place on the all-time scoring list after scoring 20 points against Nebraska. She needs seven more points to pass LaToya Bond (1,186) for 18th.
With 89 blocks in her career, Johnson also ranks ninth all-time on that list. Additionally, she should also end her tiger career ranked in the top-10 in career rebounds as well. Currently sitting on 649 in her career, she needs 30 rebounds to pass Nikki Smith (1992-95) and move into 10th place on the all-time list.
BROWN DOING IT ALL
Known as a defensive specialist after nabbing 79 steals last season, junior RaeShara Brown is doing it all for the Tigers this year.
The guard is averaging 9.3 ppg. after marks of 1.0 ppg. and 6.0 ppg. as a freshman and sophomore, respectively. Brown, who stands just 5'8", also grabs 4.5 rpg. More impressive is that 48 of her 108 rebounds this season have come on the offensive end.
Brown also leads the Tigers in assists (3.4 apg.) and steals (3.3 spg.).