Missouri women fall to Texas

No. 13 Texas never trailed in the second half on its way to a 66-56 victory Tuesday night at Mizzou Arena.

Missouri hanging with No. 13 Texas

The Missouri women’s basketball team trails No. 13 Texas 30-24 at halftime at Mizzou Arena. The Tigers jumped out to a 9-2 lead and led for much of the first half, but the Longhorns took the lead with about 4:00 left of the clock.

Alyssa Hollins leads Missouri with 12 points. Brittainey Raven has 13 points for the Longhorns. Yvonne Anderson, the daughter of Missouri men’s basketball coach Mike Anderson, scored three points for the Texas in the opening half. Most members of the Missouri men’s coaching staff and roster are here watching tonight.

Tigers lead Jayhawks at half

The Missouri women’s basketball team leads Kansas 40-29 at halftime at Mizzou Arena.

Jessra Johnson came off the bench and scored 11 points for the Tigers in the first half on 4-of-5 shooting. Coach Cindy Stein held her out of the lineup for the final 7:50 of the half after she was called for her second foul.

Alyssa Hollins made with 11 seconds left on the clock and finished with eight points in the half.

Danielle McCray led Kansas with 10 points.

Missouri women face Kansas; try to “Pack the Zou”

Fans will be able to see the Missouri women’s basketball team play Kansas for just $1 at 1 p.m. on Saturday as part of the “Pack the Zou” promotion. Attendance at the women’s game usually fall short of 2,000 people, but I would expect the number to be bigger than that on Saturday. 

Before the Tigers most recent home game against Oklahoma State, I saw stacks of coupons for free entrance to the game at the Mizzou Arena entrance, and I overheard coach Cindy Stein reminding her players they could pick up some of these to hand out after the team’s practice on Thursday.

After finishing up with her team Stein reflected on her team’s 75-58 loss to Kansas earlier this season in Lawrence.

“We were really flat last game,” Stein said. “There’s no excuse for that, so that’s the main thing we want to emphasize is we can’t come out that flat. We’ve got to be ready to roll. I mean, they won’t (be flat).”

Bekah Mills also talked about the team’s struggles against the Jayhawks and said the team primarily needed to focus on just executing better rather than making specific adjustments for Kansas.

“When we take care of what we need to do, we’re a pretty hard team to stop,” Mills said.

Colorado leads Mizzou women at half

The Missouri women’s basketball team led for much of the first half but trail Colorado at halftime 35-30.

Bianca Smith has been on fire from 3-point range. She made 5-of-6 in the first half and leads the Buffaloes with 15 points.

RaeShara Brown was nine points to lead the Tigers.

LIVE BLOG: Mizzou comeback falls short against No. 3 Texas A&M

Second Half: Missouri 56, Texas A&M 62 (Final)

18:50 — Texas A&M has gone on an 8-2 run to begin the second half and now leads 35-25. Coach Cindy Stein, who suddenly finds her team down by the biggest margin of the night, has called a timeout.

15:49 — The wheels seems to be falling off for Missouri right now. The Tigers have already committed four turnovers in this half and now trail 41-28 at the first media timeout of the second half.

12:42 — Texas A&M calls a timeout leading 45-30.

8:29 — The Tigers have scored four consecutive points and now trail 37-50.

6:26 — Jessra Johnson’s free throws have pulled Missouri back within 10 points at 54-44.

4:52 — The Tigers are continuing their comeback attempt. Two more free throws from Jessra Johnson make the score 46-54.

4:43 — It’s now a 9-0 run for Missouri. RaeShara Brown’s steal and layup have pulled the Tigers within 6 points at 48-54.

3:23 — Another pair of free throws for Jessra Johnson. It’s 50-54.

2:37 — After Danielle Gant broke the run with a basket, Shak Jones hits two free throws. 52-56, Texas A&M leads.

52.5 — Danielle Gant has taken over for the Aggies. She has scored six points in a row, but Shak Jones answers with another layup. The score is now 56-60.

4.3 — The Tigers had a few looks at the basket but could not convert. The crowd is filing out of Mizzou Arena, and the Aggies will inbound with just 4.3 seconds on the clock.

:00 — Missouri falls short; loses 56-62. We’ll have more soon.

First Half: Missouri 23, Texas A&M 27

3: 53 — We’re at the final media timeout of the first half. With just over five minutes left to go in the half Marissa Scott’s 3-pointer put the Missouri women ahead of No. 3 Texas A&M 16-15, which is still our score here at Mizzou Arena.

3:11 — Missouri forces a shot-clock violation. In a game between two defensive-minded teams, Missouri might be winning that battle.

:40 — All of the sudden, the teams have started making some shots. We’re tied at 23.

:00 — Back-to-back baskets by Texas A&M to end the first half have given the Aggies a 27-23 lead at halftime.

Despite getting off to a 0-for-5 start for the field, Alyssa Hollins is tied for a team-high six points at the half. Shakara Jones also has six for the Tigers, and Toy Richbow has scored four points.

Texas A&M got 10 points in the first half from Takia Starks, one of two All-American candidates on the Aggies’ roster. The other candidate, Danielle Gant, has eight points.

Stay here for more updates from the second half.

Hollins says she’s struggling; Big 12 play begins

Alyssa Hollins is averaging 14 points a game this season for the Missouri women’s basketball team, which is good enough to be tied for the team lead.

The Tigers’ lone senior, though, is not happy with her play so far this season. She is shooting 34 percent from the field and 29 person from 3-point range. When I talked to her after Missouri’s practice on Thursday she was in good spirits as she talked about her struggles.

“I just have faith that it’ll come,” Hollins said. “It’s one of those things when you’re not having the year that you want or maybe a few games, you’ve got to keep working hard. The worst thing you can do is just give into it or fade into it and say well I’m not who I used to be or whatever. I’m just going to continue to work on it. It’ll come.”

When I suggested that maybe she’s wasn’t playing as bad as she was letting on, she actually thanked me.

“It’s a good year it that we’re winning games,” she continued. “It’s just one of those things where I’m adjusting to my new role. Last year I felt like a lot of it was on me, but now I believe in the girls a lot more. I know people can get to the basket. I don’t feel as much pressure to have to score the ball, but I’m still trying to find my niche. A lot of times it’s just not knocking down shots, like wide open shots, I feel like that’s unacceptable, I need to be knocking those down. But you just keep shooting, keep working hard, and they’ll fall when they need to fall.”

Big 12 play starts Saturday

Missouri will begin conference play against Texas A&M at 5 p.m. Saturday at Mizzou Arena. The Aggies are currently ranked No.3 in the AP poll and No. 6 in the coaches’ poll.

“They’re fast. They’re pesky defenders,” said Bekah Mills. “They’re going to get out and deny out and deny the passes, so all we’ve got to do is take care of the ball, and I think we’ll be OK.”

The Tigers lost both matchups against Texas A&M last season, falling 43-62 on Jan. 29 and 39-65 in the Big 12 Conference tournament.

Missouri coach Cindy Stein said she would have to wait and see if her team is ready for conference play.

“I don’t think you’re ever totally satisfied with your team. I think you always feel like they’re areas you’ve got to improve on. I think that you never know until the game starts and finishes how ready you are.”

Click here to read Friday’s story from the Columbia Missourian about the start of Big 12 play.

Missouri beats Bradley

The Missouri women’s basketball team defeated Bradley 83-54 Tuesday night at Mizzou Arena.

The win is the third in a row for the Tigers.

Missouri women lead Bradley at half

The Missouri women’s basketball team closed the first half of its game against Bradley Tuesday night at Mizzou Arena on a 14-2 run and lead 39-25 at the half.

Alyssa Hollins leads the Tigers in scoring once again with 11 points, and Jessra Johnson has nine points to go along with four rebounds.

Come back later for complete coverage of the game from the Columbia Missourian.

Women face Bradley Tuesday

The Missouri women’s basketball team will have a good chance on Tuesday to see if it’s still able to muster some momentum from its 70-50 victory over Toledo last week. 

The Tigers will face Bradley at 6:30 p.m. at Mizzou Arena. The game will also be shown on the Mizzou Sports Network, which in this case means you should be able to catch the game on Fox Sports Midwest or KZOU. (The game is slated to run on both networks in the Columbia area according to my TV listings.)

Bradley, who enters the game 6-1, may well exceed preseason expectations after being picked to finish eighth in the 10-team Missouri Valley Conference.  The two teams have one common opponent this season in Illinois. While the Braves beat the Illini 71-53 on a neutral court Saturday, Missouri lost to Illinois 65-55 in Champaign.

Missouri (3-4) is coming off back-to-back victories for the first time this year.

Notes from MU women’s loss to Indiana

The Missouri women’s basketball team lost to Indiana 63-54 Tuesday night at Mizzou Arena. You can find the game story here.

Jessra Johnson posted her second consecutive double-double for the Tigers (1-3). The junior forward had 15 points and 12 rebounds in what was an otherwise tough game against the Hoosiers for Missouri’s post players. (The Tigers were outscored 32-18 in the paint and were outrebounded 45-34.)

“All that means nothing to me if we still don’t come out with a “W” as a team,” Johnson said after the game. “I can have 1,000 points, but if they have 1,001, it doesn’t matter.”

Missouri has relied heavily on Johnson, Alyssa Hollins and Shakara Jones for scoring so far this season. That trio has scored 150 points in MU’s first four games while the rest of the roster has combined to score just 70 points.

Not surprisingly, coach Cindy Stein said that was going to have to change.

“You’ve got to have other kids stepping up,” she said. “We had some kids have wide open shots that we created for them and not even look to shoot and, again, if we’re in that position then obviously we need to work a lot more on shooting because we’ve got to get some other kids stepping up.”

Eleven players saw time on the court for the Tigers, which is not unusual. The bulk of the playing time was given to just six players, though, a change from Missouri’s previous games. Coach Stein said the change was more about focusing on defense and trying to combat Indiana’s big lineup than setting a more strict rotation of players.

“I’m not sure I’m tightening it up,” Stein said about her playing rotation. “The kids that were picking stuff up in practice and doing what we wanted them to do, those are the kids that get the minutes. There’s a couple kids that are turning the corner a little bit in practice, like a Jas Otote. You know, if she keeps playing that hard like she has done the last two days in practice, her minutes are going to increase.”

Otote played eight minutes and made the one shot she took in the game, a 3-pointer with 3:04 left in the game that cut the Hoosiers lead to five points. The sophomore played just three minutes in Missouri’s opening game and did not play in its last two contests.

 

Missouri women trail Indiana at half

Alyssa Hollins made a free throw with 2.7 seconds left in the first half to pull the Missouri women’s basketball team within three points of visiting Indiana at the break, 31-28.

The Tigers trailed by as many 11 points in the first half but went on a 12-2 run heading into the locker room.

Hollins leads Missouri in scoring with nine points, and Jessra Johnson has seven rebounds.

Whitney Thomas leads the Hoosiers with nine points and six rebounds.

MU women fall to South Dakota State

The Missouri women’s basketball team was outscored 38-26 in the second half of Friday night’s game against South Dakota State and lost 55-50.

To read more about the game go to ColumbiaMissourian.com for stories from reporters Shawn Garrison and Rachel Crader, and come back to the MizzouHoops blog for additional information.

MU women lead South Dakota State at half

It’s halftime at Mizzou Arena and the Missouri women’s team leads South Dakota State 24-17.

Shakara Jones leads the Tigers with seven points and three rebounds, but she had to leave the game with foul trouble with nine minutes left in the half.

RaeShara Brown has six points and five rebounds.

Women Sign Recruit, Ready for Season

Missouri women’s basketball coach Cindy Stein said the team had signed Trenee Thorton after her team’s practice on Thursday.

Thorton is a 5-foot-6 guard from Central High School in Kansas City who was a first team, All-Stater in Class 4 last year. Here’s what Stein had to say about Thorton:

“She’s just a tremendous young lady — good student, very polished player, can play the one or the two, very athletic, smart. We’re really excited about her.”

Stein said she expects to a couple late-signing recruits to next year’s class but did not mention any names.

I included a quote from Stein in my story for Friday’s paper about her belief that the team has something to prove this year, but she bristled at the idea of using things like being picked to finish last in the Big 12 conference for “bulletin board material.”

“Not anymore,” she said. “I think that can spur people on for a little bit, but really when it comes down to it, it’s what’s inside—kids have got to be competitive inside. If you need gimmicks to get them fired up then you probably recruited the wrong kids.”

None of the Tigers have injuries that could affect their play heading into the season, according to Stein.

“Not too much. You always have tweaks here and there, nothing that we’re worried about,” she said.

Missouri plays South Dakota State at 6:30 on Friday at Mizzou Arena in its first regular season game. I will posting a short update here during halftime, so be sure to check back.