Missouri women's basketball to finish travels at Northwestern

The Missouri women's basketball team has traveled more than 6,300 miles in 24 days.

After playing six games in four different venues, the the Tigers will finish the stretch at 1 p.m. on Sunday in Evanston, Ill., as they take on the Northwestern Wildcats. 

The Tigers have not hosted a regular-season home game yet. Their two home games at Mizzou Arena came in the first week of November and were exhibition matches against Western Illinois and Oklahoma City.

The game against Northwestern will give Pingeton, who coached at Illinois State from 2003 to 2009, a second chance to defeat a team from Illinois in the regular season. Her first shot at this feat came when MU lost 81-73 to Eastern Illinois in the Tigers' second road match. 

Missouri is 3-3 in its series of road matches. Its most surprising victory came over No. 12 Georgetown in the team's second match of the Paradise Jam tournament in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The Tigers defeated Memphis in their season opener and won their most recent match over against Ball State 56-45 in a game they never trailed. The team's losses came at Eastern Illinois, No. 9 Tennessee and Georgia Tech.

Despite competing in different conferences, Missouri and Northwestern have a common denominator — both the Tigers' and Wildcats' last loss came against Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets beat the Tigers in the final game of the Paradise Jam, and they handed Northwestern its first loss of the season on Wednesday.

Missouri's game against Northwestern will be the eighth of 12 games in the inaugural Big Ten/Big 12 Challenge. The conferences are currently tied 1-1, with six games being played tomorrow. On Thursday, Kansas overcame Wisconsin with a 93-86 overtime win, and Illinois narrowly defeated Colorado on Saturday, 63-59. 

Christine Flores will look to help Missouri give the Big 12 the lead in the Challenge. Flores scored 13 points and grabbed eight rebounds against Ball State. The Tigers will also look for leadership from senior guard RaeShara Brown, who accumulated 50 points and 25 rebounds in three games in the Paradise Jam tournament.

Northwestern, however, has not lost a home game since February. The Wildcats have won four games in a row at Welsh-Ryan Arena, most recently defeating Brigham Young. Senior center Amy Jaeschke and sophomore forward Kendall Hackney lead the Wildcats. Jaeschke scored 26 points with four rebounds in the loss to Georgia Tech, while Hackney scored 24 and snagged three rebounds against the Yellow Jackets.