March 1, 2011
COLUMBIA, Mo. - The University of Missouri women's basketball team (12-16, 4-10) heads to Waco, Texas, on Wednesday, March 2 to face the No. 3 Baylor Bears (26-2, 13-1) at 7 p.m. at the Ferrell Center. The Bears hold a 13-5 edge in the all-time series, however the Tigers picked up a 70-62 upset of the Bears in last season's matchup.
UP NEXT
Mizzou hosts the regular season finale on Saturday, March 5 against the No. 23 Iowa State Cyclones at 4 p.m. at Mizzou Arena. Prior to the game, Missouri will honor seniors RaeShara Brown, Shakara Jones and Jasmyn Otote for their contributions to the women's basketball program.
SCOUTING BAYLOR
The Bears are an impressive 26-2 on the season and 13-1 in Big 12 Conference play. Baylor, who outscores opponents by 26.6 ppg., is coming off an 82-81 road victory over No. 16/15 Oklahoma on Sunday. Freshman Odyssey Sims notched 37 points in the game, including the game-winning layup with 10 seconds left. Baylor's only two losses this season have come on the road, to No. 1 Connecticut (65-64) and Texas Tech (56-45).
Sophomore Brittney Griner leads the Bears with 22.4 ppg., 7.9 rpg. and 4.5 bpg. while shooting 53.9 percent from the floor and 77.3 percent from the foul line. Sims ranks second on the squad with 13.8 ppg. and is shooting an even 50.0 percent from the floor. Senior Melissa Jones adds 9.1 ppg., 6.9 rpg. and a team high 3.7 apg.
Head Coach Kim Mulkey is in her 11th season at Baylor and has a 290-78 record with the team.
LAST TIME OUT
Colorado's Britney Blythe hit a game-winning three-pointer with 15 seconds remaining as the Missouri suffered a 63-59 loss to the Colorado Buffaloes Saturday afternoon.
Mizzou led 59-54 with 2:32 on the clock after a layup from Senior RaeShara Brown but Colorado scored the final nine points of the contest to come away with the victory. An old fashioned three-point play from Meagan Malcolm-Peck at the 1:43 mark cut the Tigers' lead to one, 59-58.
Neither team managed to find the basket over the next minute and a half as Missouri clung to its narrow advantage. Colorado's Brittany Spears missed a trey with 19 seconds on the clock but Julie Seabrook grabbed the offensive board and found Blythe, who nailed a three with 15 seconds remaining for a 61-59 Buff lead. Brown drove into the lane looking to tie the score but her layup attempt was swatted away by Rachel Hargis. Spears hit two free throws with five seconds to put Colorado up 63-59, which held on to be the final score.
Junior Christine Flores recorded her fifth career double-double with a team high 18 points and 14 rebounds. She was joined in double figures by Brown, who had 17 points and four assists.
LAST TIME AGAINST THE BEARS
Missouri used a key 11-0 second half run to propel the Tigers to a 70-62 upset of No. 10 Baylor on Jan. 23, 2010. The Tigers led 31-30 at the break before Baylor took a 40-36 edge with 15:18 remaining. Mizzou then reeled off its 11-0 run to take a 47-40 lead with 12:33 left.
A three-pointer from Baylor's Kelli Griffin pulled to Bears within one, 61-60, with 4:39 on the clock. However a jumper from Jessra Johnson put the Tigers back up by three and the team never looked back, as Mizzou outscored the Bears 10-2 over the final 4:01.
Johnson led the Tigers with 19 points. Christine Flores scored 15, Jasmyn Otote posted 12 and Amanda Hanneman added 10.
PINGETON MAKING HER MARK
Robin Pingeton is one of 35 head coaches in their first season at a new Division I basketball program. She is also one of just two of those 35 to have two wins over ranked opponents this season, joining Colorado's Linda Lappe. Pingeton's Tigers have wins over No. 12 Georgetown and No. 22 Texas, while Lappe's Buffs have wins over No. 15 Oklahoma and No. 16 Iowa State. Only one other coach in his/her first year at a school has recorded a win over a ranked opponent so far this season: Houston's Todd Buchanan, whose team defeated then-No. 21 Nebraska on Dec. 18.
BROWN DOING IT ALL
Senior RaeShara Brown leads the Tigers in most statistical catergories, including points, assists, steals and minutes played, while ranking second in rebounds. Overall, she accounts for at least 15 percent of Mizzou's points, rebounds, assists and steals, with most contributions much larger.
Below is a breakdown:
| Big 12 | Overall | |
| Points | 30.6% | 28.2% |
| Rebounds | 14.4% | 15.8% |
| Assists | 37.8% | 38.7% |
| Steals | 41.5% | 41.2 |
Additionally, Brown has contributed just about half of Missouri's made field goals this season, when combining both field goals made and assists:
Overall: 166 FGM + 125 Asts = 291
FG 291 FG / 611 total team FG = 47.6%
Big 12: 90 FGM + 55 Asts = 145 FG
145 FG / 291 total team FG = 49.8%
FLORES POSTS DOUBLE-DOUBLE VS. CU
Junior Christine Flores posted her second double-double of the season, and fifth of her career, with team highs of 18 points and 14 rebounds against Colorado on Feb. 26. The forward made 5-of-10 shots from the floor, 1-of-2 from behind the arc and 7-of-10 from the foul line to earn her 18 points.
Flores also grabbed 10 of her 14 rebounds in the second half, including two on the offensive end. Her rebounds are tied as the second most for a Missouri player this season, behind sophomore Sydney Crafton's 15 at Kansas on Feb. 19 and tied with senior Shakara Jones' 14 at Memphis on Nov. 12.
BROWN MU'S ALL-TIME STEALS LEADER
Senior RaeShara Brown broke Missouri's all-time steals record in the Tigers' contest against Oklahoma on Feb. 12. Brown, who entered the game tied with former Tiger great Joni Davis at 248, broke the record after stealing the ball away from Danielle Robinson with 18:49 remaining in the game. After two steals against Colorado, she upped her career total to 261.
Brown 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.
PINGETON EARNS 350TH VICTORY
Head Coach Robin Pingeton claimed her 350th career head coaching victory in Missouri's win over Oklahoma State on Feb. 16. In her 16th season as a head coach, she has a career record of 350-173 coming at both the NCAA Division I and NAIA Division II level. Pingeton compiled 194 wins at St. Ambrose (NAIA), 144 at Illinois State and 12 so far at Missouri.
THORNTON PROVIDING KEY DEPTH
Sophomore Trenee Thornton has upped her scoring in recent games, thanks in part to increased minutes. She has scored in nine of the last 10 games and averaged 5.9 ppg. during those contests. In the first 16 games she played this year before the Colorado contest, Thornton averaged just 0.9 ppg.
She has also seen her playing time jump dramatically since Big 12 play started. She averaged 9.9 mpg. in Mizzou's 14 non-conference contests and has played 24.4 mpg. in the Tigers' 14 conference games.
BROWN APPROACHING 1,000 POINTS
Senior RaeShara Brown enters Wednesday's game with 978 points in her career, just 39 shy of 1,000. If she reaches the milestone this season, she will become the second player this year (joining Shakara Jones) and the 29th player in MU history to reach the mark.
Almost half of her 978 career points have come in her senior season, as she has compiled 472 so far this year. Her point total in 2010-11 is 48.3 percent of her career total after posting 33 points as a freshman, 181 as a sophomore and 292 as a junior.
TOUGH ROAD
The Tigers enter Wednesday's game with a 12-16 overall record despite playing one of the nation's toughest schedules to this point. As of Feb. 28, Mizzou's strength of schedule (SOS) ranks 11th in the nation by RealTimeRPI.com. Missouri's SOS trails just Texas A&M, Duke, Baylor, Connecticut, Tennessee, Ohio State, Rutgers, Stanford, USC and Virginia.
Below is a list of Big 12 teams' SOS, along with Ratings Percent Index (RPI), based on wins and losses and SOS.
| SOS | RPI | |
| Texas A&M | 1 | 5 |
| Baylor | 3 | 3 |
| Missouri | 11 | 87 |
| Texas | 12 | 38 |
| Oklahoma | 14 | 22 |
| Nebraska | 25 | 99 |
| Texas Tech | 31 | 24 |
| Iowa State | 34 | 25 |
| Kansas State | 65 | 53 |
| Oklahoma State | 67 | 104 |
| Colorado | 69 | 128 |
| Kansas | 76 | 68 |
JONES REACHES POINTS MILESTONE
Senior Shakara Jones became the 28th player in MU history to reach 1,000 points when the forward accomplished the feat against UC Riverside on Dec. 21. She now stands at 1,173 career points after notching seven points against Colorado to rank 20th all-time. She needs 12 more points to pass LaToya Bond (02-05) and move into 19th.
Jones is averaging 9.6 ppg. in 2010-11 after posting marks of 10.5 ppg. as a freshman, 10.3 ppg. as a sophomore and 9.1 ppg. as a junior.
BROWN NOW IN ASSISTS TOP-10
Senior RaeShara Brown's entered Mizzou career top-10 assists list after dishing out 12 against UAB on Dec. 29. After recording four on Feb. 26 against Colorado, she ranks sixth on the list with 322. She needs just one more to tie Joni Davis for fifth on the list.
Additionally, Brown now has 125 assists so far this season. Her total ranks 10th on MU's single-season list. She needs one more to tie Erika Martin (95-96) for ninth with 126 and two more to tie Debra Williams (97-98) for eighth with 127.
FLORES BLOCKING UP THE LIST
Junior Christine Flores stands in eighth-place on MU's all-time blocks list with 111 after notching a block against Nebraska on Feb. 22. She needs five more to tie Stretch James (03-04) for seventh on the list.
Flores has 51 blocks so far this year, which ranks seventh on MU's single-season list. She needs two more to tie Mary Brueggestrass (82-83) for sixth on the list with 53.
GEE AND BROWN EARN ACADEMIC HONORS
Junior Bailey Gee and senior RaeShara Brown were among 46 student-athletes named to the 2011 Academic All-Big 12 Women's Basketball Team, the league office announced on Feb. 15. Gee, a junior, earned a spot on the first team while Brown, a senior, was named to the second team. Gee was honored for the first time in her career while Brown was named to the first team during her sophomore and junior seasons.