Nov. 30, 2010
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COLUMBIA, Mo. - The University of Missouri women's basketball team (2-3) travels to Muncie, Ind., for a matchup with the Ball State Cardinals (3-2) on Wednesday, Dec. 1 at 6 p.m. CT (7 p.m. ET). The Tigers own a 2-0 record in the all-time series. In the last meeting, Mizzou picked up a 66-55 victory over the Cardinals on Dec. 5, 2009 in Columbia, Mo.
UP NEXT
Missouri concludes a seven-game stretch away from Mizzou Arena with a contest against the Northwestern Wildcats in Evanston, Ill., on Sunday, Dec. 5 at 1 p.m. The game, part of the Big Ten/Big 12 Challenge, will be televised live on the Big Ten Netork. The Tigers then open the home portion of the 20010-11 schedule on Tuesday, Dec. 7 with a game against UT Martin at 7 p.m. The contest will be televised on the Mizzou Sports Network, which can be found on Fox Sports Midwest in mid-Missouri and Metro Sports in Kansas City.
SCOUTING BALL STATE
Ball State owns an early 3-2 on the season and is coming off a 66-52 victory over Valparaiso on Nov. 24. The team also has wins over Wright State (64-63) and Evansville (61-58), while falling to Indiana (81-66) and Detroit Mercy (78-60).
Senior Emily Maggert averages a double-double with 15.8 ppg. and 11.4 rpg., both team highs. Junior Suzanne Grossnickle is second on the squad with 10.0 ppg. and 6.4 rpg. in juts 19.0 mpg.
Head Coach Kelly Packard is in her third season at Ball State and has a 40-26 record with the team.
LAST MEETING
Missouri outscored Ball State 40-28 in the second half to propel the Tigers to a 66-55 victory over the Cardinals on Dec. 5, 2010.
Jones secured a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds, while Jessra Johnson narrowly missed her own double-double with a team high 18 points and nine rebounds to go along with three blocks. Christine Flores scored a 10 points and RaeShara Brown added nine points and a seven assists.
LAST TIME OUT
Mizzou suffered a 61-46 loss to Georgia Tech in Mizzou's final game of the Paradise Jam in the U.S. Virgin Islands on Nov. 27.
Senior RaeShara Brown and junior Christine Flores led Mizzou with15 points apiece, while senior Shakara Jones scored 10. Sophomore Sydney Crafton pulled down a career high 12 rebounds.
BROWN NAMED TO ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
Senior RaeShara Brown was named to the Paradise Jam Reef Division All-Tournament Team after averaging 16.7 ppg. and 8.3 rpg. in the Tigers' two contests.
The 5-8 guard posted double-doubles against No. 4 Tennessee (18 points, 10 rebounds) and No. 12 Georgetown (17 points, 11 rebounds), while scoring 15 points against Georgia Tech.
She was joined on the All-Tournament Team by Alex Montgomery (Georgia Tech), Meighan Simmons (Tennessee), Glory Johnson (Tennessee) and Monica McNutt (Georgetown). The MVP was Sugar Rogers (Georgetown).
TIGERS UPSET NO. 12 GEORGETOWN
Missouri earned its first win of the season over a ranked opponent with a 54-45 victory over No. 12 Georgetown on Friday, Nov. 26.
Senior RaeShara Brown had 17 points and 11 rebounds to record her third consecutive double-double. Junior Christine Flores and senior Jasmyn Otote both had 12 points, which tied Otote's career high.
Leading 39-38 with 7:48 left, Missouri scored 10 straight points on four free throws by Flores and back-to-back three-pointers by Otote to take an 11-point lead with just over five minutes left.
Georgetown tried to rally, scoring the next seven points to cut its deficit to 49-45 on Adria Crawford's two free throws with 1:06 left.
The Tigers hit five of their six free throws, including four by Brown, in the final 63 seconds to seal the win.
MIZZOU CAN PULL THE UPSET
The Tigers' 54-45 victory over No. 12 Georgetown marked the sixth consecutive season Missouri has beaten a ranked opponent.
Mizzou started the streak with a 65-61 win over defending national champion and No. 4 Baylor on Jan. 4, 2006.
2010-11: MU 54, #12 Georgetown 45 (11/26/10)
2009-10: MU 70, #10 Baylor 62 (1/23/10)
2008-09: MU 52, #14 Kansas State 43 (2/18/09)
2007-08: MU 70, #11 Oklahoma 64 (3/11/08)
2006-07: MU 65, #19 Nebraska 53 (2/17/07)
2005-06: MU 65, #4 Baylor 61 (1/4/06)
OTOTE KEY TO BEATING RANKED FOES?
Senior Jasmyn Otote might be the key for Missouri to knock off top-25 teams. In each Mizzou's last two upsets over ranked squads, the guard has scored a career high 12 points.
Otote first set her personal best after sinking four three-pointers against No. 10 Baylor on Jan. 23, 2010. The Duncanville, Texas, native tied her career high against Georgetown on Nov. 26 as she hit three second half treys and three free throws to score 12 points.
BROWN A DOUBLE-DOUBLE MACHINE
RaeShara Brown entered her senior season without any double-doubles in her career. She has made up for lost time as the guard posted three consecutive double-doubles in Mizzou's second, third and fourth games of the season. She currently ranks tied for third in the Big 12 with three double-doubles on the season, behind just Kansas' Aisha Sutherland and Oklahoma State's Toni Young, who each have four. Both Sutherland and Young's teams have played six games thus far, opposed to Mizzou's five.
MILLS SUFFERS ACL INJURY
Redshirt-junior Bekah Mills suffered a season-ending knee injury when she tore the anterior cruciate ligament of her left knee in the first half against No. 4 Tennessee on Nov. 25.
This marks Mills' fourth total ACL injury but the first on her left knee.
Mills had started Mizzou's first three games at point guard.
CRAFTON ALL OVER THE BOARDS
Sophomore Sydney Crafton was all over the boards in Mizzou's game with Georgia Tech on Nov. 27. The 5-10 guard pulled down a career and game high 12 rebounds in the contest.
The 12 rebounds was triple her previous personal best of four, which she posted against both Eastern Illinois and Tennessee.
The mark was the third best invididual output of the year for Missouri, behind Shakara Jones' 14 and Christine Flores' 13, both recorded against Memphis on Nov. 12.
BROWN DOING IT ALL Senior RaeShara Brown currently leads the Tigers in four major statistical categories: points, rebounds, assists and steals. The 5-8 guard is averaging 16.6 ppg., which is tied for 12th among all Big 12 players. She's also pulling down 8.4 rpg. to rank seventh in the Big 12. Additionally, Brown dishes out a team high 4.2 apg. and is nabbing 1.8 spg. She leads all Big 12 players with 36.0 mpg.
TIGERS CARRYING REBOUNDING STREAK
The Tigers enter Wednesday's game against Ball State carrying a rebounding streak: in all five of Missouri's games so far this season a Tiger has recorded at least 10 rebounds. In fact four different Mizzou players have reached the mark so far this year.
Senior Shakara Jones and Junior Christine Flores had 14 and 13 rebounds, respectively, in the season opener against Memphis on No. 12. Senior RaeShara Brown took over with outputs of 11, 10 and 11 rebounds against Eastern Illinois, Tennessee and Georgetown, while sophomore Sydney Crafton kept the streak alive with 12 rebounds against Georgia Tech on Nov. 27.
BROWN INCHES CLOSER TO STEALS MARK
Junior RaeShara Brown has compiled 200 steals in her career and needs just 49 to move past former Tiger great Joni Davis and stand alone as MU's all-time steals leader. Her 120 steals currently rank sixth in the Tiger record book and needs four more to tie Amy Fordham for fith on the list.
Brown has led the Big 12 in steals the last two seasons, after outputs of 88 a year ago and 79 during her sophomore season. The totals rank third and eighth on Mizzou's single-season list.
JONES NEARING POINTS MILESTONE
Senior Shakara Jones is sitting on 940 points in her career, just 60 shy of the millennium mark. Assuming the forward accomplishes the feat this season, she will become just the 28th player in Mizzou history to score at least 1,000 points.
Jones has a 10.0 ppg. average in her three-year career, after posting marks of 10.5 ppg. as a freshman, 10.3 ppg. as a sophomore and 9.1 ppg. as a junior.