Standouts step aside

In the first two minutes of the Missouri women’s basketball game Sunday against Colorado, senior EeTisha Riddle had already picked up her first foul.

Less than two minutes later, disgusted, Riddle beat her towel against the floor as she threw herself on the bench in response to her second foul of the game.

“I really haven’t been faced with foul trouble all year, and I was just trying to catch my head because I was about ready to explode. I was so mad,” Riddle said. “I was just trying to sit down and calm down.”

Riddle, who averages a little more than 31 minutes and 16 points a game, played only 19 minutes in the Tigers’ 61-48 win over the Buffaloes at Mizzou Arena. Her relatively humble 12 points in the final 13 minutes of play was the team high.

But for once, the team didn’t depend on Riddle, Tiffany Brooks or Carlynn Savant, the three seniors the Tigers (14-6, 2-5 Big 12) have looked to in the past for leadership.

Sophomore Alyssa Hollins, known for her outside shooting, didn’t make a single field goal.

“If you would have told me before the game that Riddle was going to have 12 points and Hollins was going to be 0-for-11, I would have told you we would have won by 16 or 20,” Colorado coach Kathy McConnell-Miller said.

Four players off Missouri’s bench combined to score 24 points Sunday. Comparatively, in a Jan. 13 loss to Kansas State, the Tigers had only two points come from their bench.

Before the game was over, 11 fouls were called on Missouri’s five starters, seven on Riddle and Brooks, putting the Tigers’ reserves in a position to create plays. Riddle’s rare view from the bench helped put things in perspective.

“As I’m sitting there watching, and I could see the team’s coming together and playing really good,” Riddle said. “It was just a good feeling to know that I could sit down and watch sometime.”

Freshman forward Jessra Johnson filled in for Riddle in the post, scoring nine points and grabbing six rebounds.

McConnell-Miller said there was no drop in play for Missouri with Johnson in the game, and she even went so far as to call Johnson her favorite Tiger.

“I don’t think it was any bargain (for Colorado),” she said. “I don’t consider us a team that bangs a lot.”

Johnson’s physical presence wore on the Colorado (8-11, 2-5 Big 12) post players.

“I just tried to get in there and make something happen ‘cause I knew Tish was in foul trouble and she’s the leading scorer of our team,” Johnson said. “If we don’t have leaders scoring in there, someone else has to step up.”

Johnson’s weakness coming into college, according to Missouri coach Cindy Stein, was defense, but it’s been improving and translating into more playing time. Against Nebraska on Jan. 21, Johnson had 10 points in 11 minutes.

“I think Jessra’s been working really hard on her defense,” Stein said. “I think she’s been giving us a presence in the paint which has been very, very solid, and she is naturally very strong. It was very significant, her points were very significant.”

For both teams in the first half, any points would have seemed significant. Colorado and Missouri both shot less than 30 percent and barely improved in the second half.

“Our shots weren’t always falling, but I thought our hearts stayed in the game, and we believed in ourselves, and I thought we stuck together,” Stein said. “I thought that was the key to the win. I don’t necessarily

think it was a thing of beauty, but it doesn’t matter.”

The Tigers’ week off from conference play allowed them to rediscover their team chemistry and confidence, Stein said.

“A lot of it just stems from having a great week of practice and practicing extremely hard knowing, that we need that intensity every day so we don’t have game slippage,” Stein said. “You build confidence when you’re doing that.”

Stein said despite the win, the Tigers still have things to work on before Wednesday’s game at Baylor and at Iowa State on Sunday.

“I think we got an arm of a monkey off of us,” Stein joked. “We still got a few legs and another arm to get off. You’ve got to take it one game at a time.”