Coach: loss was a ‘battle of the boards’

By Lenny Goldman
Feb. 29, 2008

Junior guard Alyssa Hollins tries to work through the Iowa State defense toward senior center Nicole Wilson during Wednesday’s game at Mizzou Arena. Hollins led all scorers with 17 points, but the Cyclones defeated the Tigers 58-54.

(Click graphic to enlarge)

As Missouri trailed by two points with 13 seconds remaining against Iowa State, junior guard Alyssa Hollins fought through a screen and earned a chance to drain her sixth 3-pointer of the night. Despite a clean look, the possible game-winner rattled out, and Iowa State went on to win 58-54.

“I always think it’s going in,” Hollins said about her final shot. “It went in and went out didn’t it? I should have got like two and a half or something.”

After Hollins sank a three to give the Tigers a two-point advantage with 4 minutes, 5 seconds to go, the Cyclones scored five consecutive points and never looked back.

“Tonight was a battle of the boards — plain and simple,” Missouri coach Cindy Stein said. “The rebounding situation obviously was the key to the ball game. Unfortunately, we were on the bottom end of that.”

With 6-foot-2-inch freshman forward Shakara Jones getting into foul trouble early, the Tigers (9-18, 2-10 Big 12) were exposed on the boards all night. The Cyclones (17-10, 6-8) snagged 48 rebounds compared to Missouri’s 28.

“It’s tough, I mean, Shak’s a good rebounder,” Stein said. “It’s a group effort all the time, but Shak does help us with the boards. You just got to find a way-any way.”

Iowa State’s way involved the small players crashing the boards. Four Cyclone guards recorded six or more rebounds.

“We haven’t been a great rebounding team, but it was something we talked a lot about,” Iowa State coach Bill Fennelly said. “The thing about us tonight, that we haven’t had a lot of was that our guards rebounded real well. The separation comes from your guards a lot of times if you get that long rebound or that rebound in the middle of the lane.”

In a back-and-forth game where the lead changed hands nine times, Stein acknowledged that sometimes it just comes down to the way the ball bounces.

“We’ve got to do a better job on the boards,” Stein said. “We’ll continue to work on that, and obviously if we make our free throws we win. Those are just two areas we’ve got to continuously try to improve on.”

For senior center Nicole Wilson, Wednesday’s matchup was her last at Mizzou Arena. The Tigers will play their final two games and the Big 12 tournament on the road. The sole senior contributed three points and two rebounds in her 18-minute performance.

“It was kind of bittersweet in a lot of different ways,” Wilson said. “Just to think back at all that we’ve accomplished as a team. It’s been fun to look back.”

Stein said she was focused on looking forward.

“I feel like with this young, inexperienced team, for us to only have seven turnovers tonight and eleven the game before, while keeping our turnovers down, I think our team is continuing to grow and doing some really good things and that’s what we’ve got to focus on.”

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Coach: loss was a ‘battle of the boards’

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