Women's basketball wins Tiger Classic
The Tigers have won the classic 20 times in 30 years.
Published Dec. 5, 2006
Despite a day's delay by snow, the Missouri women's basketball team looked strong in the State Farm Tiger Classic.
The Tigers won their 20th Tiger Classic in 30 years by beating the Creighton Bluejays and the Alabama A&M Lady Bulldogs.After beating the Lady Bulldogs (4-3), MU coach Cindy Stein said she is happy to win the tournament, but her team expected to win.
"Come on, you've got to win your own tournament," she said. "There's very few games we can control and these were two of them."
The star of the weekend for MU was senior forward EeTisha Riddle.
She had back-to-back 20-point outings, and is the first Tiger to accomplish that this season.
In the win over Creighton, she also added a career-high six steals.
"When your shot is falling, it feels good," Riddle said on Sunday. "I don't care about stats, I just want to contribute within our offense."
Riddle said she was very happy with her steals total on Saturday, but didn't know how many she had until a reporter told her.
"I didn't know it was that many — that's good," she said. "I'm just glad I can get it done on the defensive end."
The Tigers (7-1) have won the opening game in the Classic every year the tournament has been held.
But Missouri struggled to put away 0-5 Creighton, winning 70-66.
The Tigers led by just three at halftime, and by four with less than 20 seconds to go.
It wasn't until Bluejays junior Kelsey Crites air-balled a shot with 16 seconds left that MU was out of the woods.
Senior guard Tiffany Brooks blamed some for the team's sluggish play on the Friday snow day because the team couldn't practice.
"We would have played a lot better tonight if we had practiced," Brooks said Saturday.
Senior forward Carlynn Savant said MU could have been much sharper.
"We learned that it's probably not best to play a game after you don't practice," she said.
All the problems the Tigers seemed to have Saturday were gone the next afternoon when the team played Alabama A&M.
MU went on an 18-6 run in the middle of the first half and led by 16 at halftime.
Sophomore guard Alyssa Hollins had 18 points for the Tigers on Sunday after scoring only two the night before.
It was her sixth night in double figures in eight games.
"I felt like I was more relaxed today," she said. "I was taking better shots."
Because the Tigers were so far ahead early in the game, Stein was able to empty her bench for much of the second half.
Twelve players got at least 10 minutes of playing time.
"We have a lot of kids who have been working hard in practice and deserve playing time," Stein said. "Every game, ideally, I would like to get everyone in."
Missouri improved in nearly every category from Saturday to Sunday, and Riddle said she hopes that momentum carries to the Tigers' next game against the Ohio Bobcats on Wednesday.
"I hope we can keep this going," she said. "It was a fun weekend."