Missouri falls to Stanford

Missouri 6-foot-3 center EeTisha Riddle doesn’t usually look up to too many players. But Tuesday night, she found herself looking up to Stanford’s 6-foot-5 Kristen Newlin. And 6-foot-4 Jayne Appel.

She also looked the Cardinal starting center, 6-foot-3 Brooke Smith straight in the eye.

Missouri couldn’t do much right against No. 11 Stanford. Then again, Stanford (2-1) didn’t do much wrong.

At one point, trailing by 27 points in the second half, the formerly undefeated Tigers finally lost to the Cardinal, 60-75.

The Tigers had the score as close as four points in the first half, but Missouri shooting 33 percent helped lead to the loss. Riddle had said earlier in the week, that if weak shooting occurred, the Tigers (3-1) would have to rebound as well as they had in other games. But rebounding against the taller Cardinal team wasn’t exactly easy.

“They’re huge,” Missouri coach Cindy Stein said about Stanford’s size, “So obviously rebounding was really critical for us and we didn’t do a great job on the board and we didn’t always box out our kids.”

Stein, whose goal this season is to increase the depth of her bench, played all three of her centers in hopes of making up for lost height under the basket.

“Tamika (Jackson) and Tish and all the kids that played on the inside fought their tails off,” Stein said. “I mean, they really worked hard and tried to deny them the basketball.”

Stanford’s center presence, Brooke Smith and Kristen Newlin, combined for 28 points.

Missouri freshman Jessra Johnson added spark to what little fire the Tigers had. Johnson, formerly of Long Beach, Calif., came off the bench for 12 points, the best performance of her college career and second-best of the team.

Johnson said that even though it feels good to show her team that she can be a legitimate help, it’s hard to celebrate her feat.

“You can’t enjoy it when you come out with a loss,” Johnson said.