Emotions get to MU

Missouri women’s basketball coach Cindy Stein has no problem with her team playing with emotion.

But after the Tigers’ 75-62 loss to Nebraska on Wednesday night at Mizzou Arena, Missouri, a team known for letting its emotion show, might have let the feelings of senior night get in the way of focusing on the Cornhuskers (16-11, 8-8 Big 12 Conference).

“This was a tough one to lose obviously,” Stein said. “There are times where we play too emotional.”

The night started off well enough for Missouri (20-8, 10-6 Big 12 Conference). Seniors Cherice Mack, Christelle N’Garsanet and LaToya Bond all walked through a row of their teammates, accompanied by loved ones and the adoration of the 2,583 fans in attendance.

A handshake from Director of Athletics Mike Alden and a hug four years in the making from Stein awaited them. Couple that with an early Tigers lead and it looked like the festivities were all going by Missouri’s script.

Two hours later, N’Garsanet and Bond walked off the Mizzou Arena floor for the final time. They passed a line of teammates, weakly high-fiving in a mechanical fashion. N’Garsanet and Bond took a seat on the bench.

Bond sat, shoulders hunched over and eyes focused on the action. N’Garsanet covered her eyes with her jersey. In the postgame tradition of throwing T-shirts to the crowd, N’Garsanet limply tossed the shirt to the first few rows and was the first one off of the court.

The emotions and eventual frustrations of the night were evident throughout the game. Stein called it “embarrassing” to see her team get outworked by Nebraska.

It finally spilled over for Missouri midway through the second half when Bond was whistled for a technical foul after getting into a minor scuffle with Nebraska’s Kiera Hardy after a jump ball. Bond said she didn’t know what she did to cause the technical foul, but was momentarily restrained by her teammates before she calmed down and went up to an official to ask about the call.

“She just drove to the lane and I put my hand out and we got a jump ball,” Hardy said. “Emotions were high and there’s nothing between us. I understand she wanted to win on senior night. I think it was just her emotions.”

Hardy lead all scorers with 28 points. The Kansas City native has torched Missouri in its home gym before, averaging 24 points in her three games in Columbia.

The frustrations the Tigers are going through couldn’t have come at a worse time. With the loss, the Tigers will be the No. 4 seed in the Big 12 tournament next week in Dallas. There, they will likely play Texas Tech in the quarterfinals, with the winner likely facing conference champion Oklahoma. The Sooners successfully ran the table in the conference with a win on Wednesday night against Texas Tech.

More troublesome for forward EeTisha Riddle than a potential date with the Sooners, though, is that the Tigers enter the tournament with no momentum and plenty of questions surrounding the team’s play in its past two games, both losses.

“I don’t know what we were doing out there to be honest with you,” Riddle said. “We just weren’t talking out there.”