When Illinois State meets Missouri, Redbird coach
Jenny Yopp believes she will see something of the future.
Not just in being able to project the improvement of her own team; Yopp sees coach Cindy Stein's Tigers, 7-1, as what her team could look like with some more experience. Mizzou meets Illinois State, 1-6, at 5:35 p.m. Sunday in Redbird Arena.
"They are an impressive, pressing team," said Yopp. "Their style is similar to ours. They have a pressure, fast-break mentality with a potential WNBA player. They're also a solid three-point shooting team."
MU's pressure and quick-strike offense has the Tigers averaging 84.8 points per game and allowing just 59.8. The Tigers don't just claw at opponents for points off turnovers--although they do force opponents into an average of 25 turnovers per game. MU is making 7.5 three-pointers per game and shooting .438 from beyond the arc led by Tracy Franklin's 58.6 percent on 17 of 29. Freshman Evan Unrau is shooting 68 percent from the field
That potential WNBA star is Amanda Lassiter, a multidimensional 6-foot-1 player who leads the Tigers with 18.6 points, 7.8 rebounds and 3.6 steals per game. She is no. 2 on the team with 3.5 assists per contest as well.
MU's game almost sounds perfect and the Tigers would be if they had made one more shot at Pepperdine. The Waves are the only team to come closer than 10 points to Mizzou, winning 69-68 in the finale of a late-November tournament at Malibu
The Redbird offense, thanks to balance behind
Sharon Blade's 12.4 points per game, managed 79 points in its last contest, a Dec. 7 loss to Illinois. That point total not only was the most this year, but was only eclipsed once last year by Illinois State, in an 80-67 win at Bradley.
Over its last five games, Illinois State has six players averaging between 7.2 and 10.2 points: Blade (10.2),
Jaci McCormack (9.8),
Steph Reichle (9.0),
Taren O'Brien (7.8),
Nadia Peruch (7.4) and
DJ Flournoy (7.2). Four of those six (all but sophomore Reichle and senior Peruch) are freshmen.
And ISU's three-point shooting has come along better lately, too. After four games, the 'Birds were shooting 25.6 percent from beyond the arc. In their last three, Illinois State has made 16 of 46, 34.8 percent. Similarly, the Redbirds are shooting a more respectable 69.2 percent from the free throw line over their last three games after hitting just 57 of their first 99 (57.6 percent) in the first four games.
"We're working hard at getting better," said Yopp. "That is the agenda for this team and we're sticking to it."
The MU-ISU women's game follows the men's game between Illinois State and Texas-San Antonio. Fans with a ticket to the men's game will not be charged separate admission to the women's game.
