Feb. 5, 2010
Complete Release in PDF Format 
COLUMBIA, Mo. - The University of Missouri women’s basketball team returns to Mizzou Arena for a clash with No. 19/22 Iowa State on Sunday, Feb. 7 at 3 p.m. The contest with the Cyclones will be televised live on FSN with Brent Stover on play-by-play duties and Brenda VanLengen serving as the color analyst. Mizzou holds a 45-23 advantage in the all-time series.
UP NEXT
Mizzou travels to Manhattan, Kan., for a contest against Kansas State on Wednesday, Feb. 10 at 7 p.m. The game will be televised live on Fox Sports Kansas City. The team then returns home to host No. 4 Nebraska on Saturday, Feb. 13 at 1 p.m. in the WBCA Pink Zone™ game. It is a global, unified effort for the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association’s nation of coaches to assist in raising breast cancer awareness on the court, across campuses, in communities and beyond. Free t-shirts will be given to the first 500 fans and $2 discount will be given to anyone wearing pink. All proceeds will benefit the Susan G. Komen for the Cure and the Kay Yow Foundation.
SCOUTING IOWA STATE
The Cyclones come to Mizzou Arena with a 17-4 overall and a 5-3 mark in Big 12 play. The team is 5-1 over its last six games, including wins over Oklahoma (63-56) and a road overtime victory over Texas (73-71).
Iowa State leads the Big 12 with 8.1 three-pointers per game on a league high 41.2 percent from behind the arc. The squad holds opponents to just 54.0 pgg., also tops in the Big 12.
Senior Alison Lacey leads the team with 17.6 ppg. and 6.5 apg., while shooting 40.7 percent from behind the arc. Junior Kelsey Bolte posts 12.2 ppg. and shoots an impressive 45.5 percent from three-point land. Freshman Anna Prins adds 9.0 ppg. while senior Denae Stuckey grabs a team high 6.1 rpg.
Head Coach Bill Fennelly is in his 15th season at the helm of the Cyclones and has a 324-145 record with the team.
LAST TIME VS. THE CYLCONES
Iowa State used 11 three-pointers to secure a 62-47 win over Mizzou on March 3, 2009 at Mizzou Arena.
Jessra Johnson scored a team high 10 points and RaeShara Brown dished out four assists and grabbed four steals.
The Cyclones led 24-16 at the half and pushed the advantage to 16 early in the second half, making four 3-pointers. Bolte’s 3 gave Iowa State a 40-24 lead before the Tigers went on a 12-2 run to trim the deficit to eight with just over 7 minutes left.
Missouri trailed 55-47 with 1:30 left, but Iowa State hit its free throws to seal the win.
LAST TIME OUT
Missouri remained close all game but ultimately fell 65-55 to No. 10 Texas A&M Wednesday night in College Station, Texas.
Senior Jessra Johnson led the team with 15 points and eight rebounds. Sophomore Christine Flores joined her in double figures with 11 points. Junior RaeShara Brown dished out six assists and nabbed five steals while junior Shakara Jones recorded a career high five assists.
The Aggies jumped out to a quick 8-4 advantage but the Tigers stormed back to knot the game at 12-12 after junior Shakara Jones found senior Toy Richbow for a jumper with 14:26 left in the first half. Two free throws from Texas A&M’s Sydney Carter gave the home team a 16-12 advantage but a three-pointer from senior Amanda Hanneman another jumper from Richbow cut Mizzou’s deficit to one, 18-17, with 10:44 on the clock.
Down 28-23 with 1:30 left in the first frame, Hanneman sank a baseline jumper and sophomore Christine Flores made a layup off a feed from Brown for a 28-27 Aggie halftime advantage.
Texas A&M reeled off the first five points, all from Danielle Adams, of the second half as the team built a 33-27 lead with 18:24 remaining in the contest. Baskets from Hanneman, Johnson and Brown brought the Tigers back within two, 35-33, but four straight points from the Aggies put the score at 39-33 with 15:45 on the clock.
With Texas A&M holding a 43-36, Missouri used a 6-0 run, including four from Flores, to cut the Aggies lead to 43-42 with 12:09 left in the game. The Aggies again went back up by six, 48-42, but Mizzou used two free throws by Flores and layups from Johnson and Jones to cut the team’s deficit to one, 49-48, with 7:43 on the clock.
The Tigers had a chanced to take the lead after Jones was fouled with 5:09 remaining and the score still stuck on 49-48 but she missed both free throws. Jones hit another layup with 3:40 left for a 51-50 Texas A&M advantage but the Aggies then reeled off 10 straight points as the team took an 11-point, 61-50, advantage with 1:10 on the clock.
CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR
In four of the teams last five games the team has played well and been within striking distance of a win despite a 1-3 mark.
On Jan. 20 the Tigers led No. 13 Oklahoma 61-60 after senior Jessra Johnson hit a jumper with 1:09 remaining. Mizzou wasn’t able to capitalize on its next possession and OU made a second chance basket with nine seconds left to earn the eventual win.
Three days later, the Tigers sent a message to the rest of the league with a 70-62 win over No. 10 Baylor.
On Jan. 30, the Tigers battled back from an early 12-point deficit and used a 11-6 run to knot the score at 55-55 with 4:06 remaining. Kansas came back Mizzou sophomore Christine Flores made a layup to cut the Jayhawk lead to two, 61-59, with 1:01 left but the Tigers missed two shots in the final five seconds.
Most recently, Missouri trailed No. 10 Texas A&M 51-50 with 3:40 on the clock before the Aggies ran off a 14-5 run to close out the contest.
BROWN ENTERS CAREER TOP-10
With five steals at Texas A&M on Feb. 3, junior RaeShara Brown moved into 10th place on MU’s career steals list with 173. She needs four more to pass Renee Kelly for ninth place. Just 75 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 70 steals so far this year, needs just five more to tie Kerensa Barr for 10th on the MU single season list. Brown already owns the seventh-best total is Tiger history, as she swiped 79 a season ago.
SECOND HALF SQUAD
In seven of eight 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 seven games, the Tigers have scored 244 points in the second half compared to 148 points in the first frame.
1st 2nd
Colorado 15 33
Kansas 18 41
Oklahoma 30 31
Baylor 31 39
Oklahoma State 20 40
Kansas 26 33
Texas A&M 27 28
244 168
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 20th place on the all-time scoring list after a 15-point outing at Texas A&M. She needs 10 more points to pass Kerensa Barr (1,161) for 19th.
With 87 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 640 in her career, she needs 39 rebounds to pass Nikki Smith (1992-95) and move into 10th place on the all-time list.
BROWN EIGHTH NATIONALLY IN STEALS
Junior RaeShara Brown leads the Big 12 and ranks eighth nationally with 70 steals on the year for an average of 3.3 spg. Most recently she grabbed five at Texas A&M.
If she keeps on her current pace, Brown will have an excellent 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 DOUBLES UP
Senior Jessra Johnson scored 13 points and ripped down 10 rebounds to record her first double-double of the season against Oklahoma State on Jan. 26. The forward now has 12 double-doubles in her career, with six in her sophomore season and five last year.
Johnson came within one rebound of recording four other double-doubles this year: Memphis (22 pts, 9 rbs), Florida State (16 pts, 9 rbs), Ball State (18 pts, 9 rbs) and Bradley (17 pts, 9 rbs).
HANNEMAN STRONG AGAINST COWGIRLS
Senior Amanda Hanneman was Mizzou’s offensive spark plug in the team’s 75-60 loss to No. 15 Oklahoma State on Jan. 26. She scored a team high 19 points, while shooting 7-of-11 from the floor and 5-of-8 from behind the arc.
After making two treys in the first half, Hanneman nailed all three of her attempts in the second. The senior now has a team high 42 three-pointers so far this year.
TIGERS GET OFFENSIVE ON THE BOARDS
Missouri grabbed 21 offensive rebounds (compared to 23 defensive rebounds) in the team’s game with Oklahoma State on Jan. 26. So far this year the team has recorded at least 17 offensive boards in nine games.
The total is also a major reason Mizzou ranks second in the the Big 12 with 15.0 offensive rebounds per game.
Amazingly, the Tigers are strong on the offensive glass despite the fact no Mizzou player ranks among the league’s top 12 offensive rebounders. Junior Shakara Jones leads the team at 2.5.
TIGERS CLAIM TOP-1O VICTORY
Missouri’s 70-62 win over No. 10 Baylor marked the first time in four years the team beat a team ranked in the top-10. Mizzou’s last victory was a 64-61 win over No. 4 and defending national champion Baylor on Jan. 4, 2006.
The win also marks the fifth consecutive season the Tigers earned a victory over a ranked team:
2009-10 MU 70, #10 BU 62 (1/23/10)
2008-09 MU 52, #14 KSU 43 (2/18/09)
2007-08 MU 70, #11 OU 64, OT (3/11/08)
2006-07 MU 65, #19 NU 53 (2/17/07)
2005-06 MU 64, #4 BU 61 (1/4/06)
FLORES STRONG OF LATE
Sophomore Christine Flores has been the Tigers’ biggest scoring threat for the last two months of the season. Since the game against Ball State on Dec. 5, the forward has averaged a team best 12.3 ppg. and 5.8 rpg., while shooting 49.3 percent from the field and 72.9 percent from the free throw line.
During the stretch Flores reached double figures in nine games and scored at least 16 points four times. She has notched a career high 19 points twice, against Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Dec. 21 and against No. 14 Xavier on Jan. 5.
She also has all three of her career double-doubles during the stretch. Flores recorded her first with 16 points and 12 rebounds against Murray State. A 19 point, 14 rebound output in the next game against Arkansas-Pine Bluff was her second of the season. Most recently, she had 10 points and 10 rebounds against Colorado in the Big 12 opener.
Flores, who averaged just 2.0 ppg. the first five games this year, has upped her season scoring average to 9.9 ppg. on 48.6 percent shooting from the field.
