Four of the first five Big 12 Conference opponents the Kansas University women’s basketball team will face this season are currently ranked in the AP Top 25.
Will tonight’s game against unranked Missouri give the 7-5 Jayhawks a chance to catch their breath?
Probably not. The Tigers are 9-3 heading into tonight’s 7 p.m. tipoff in Columbia, Mo., and tonight’s game is the last between the rivals at Missouri’s Hearnes Center.
Each team is looking for its first conference win after lopsided defeats to top-tier teams earlier this week.
“If we can play with the same intensity that we played with tonight and if we can do the little things like blocking out against Missouri, then we will be in the ballgame,” KU coach Marian Washington said after her team fell Wednesday to No. 3-ranked Texas, 73-54.
“If we can take the same kind of work ethic into Missouri, we will have a shot at them.”
Missouri has won nine of its last 10 at Hearnes and 13 straight Big 12 home games against unranked opponents.
KU leads the all-time series 32-30, but the Tigers have swept the season series the last three seasons and won a school-record-tying seven straight against their archrival.
Missouri, which is coming off a 95-59 setback to 11th-ranked Kansas State in Manhattan, is led by All-American candidate Evan Unrau. The senior ranks third in the Big 12 with 19 points a game, and is tied for the league lead with 9.3 rebounds per game.
Mizzou forward Stretch James is averaging 13.6 ppg and 6.9 rpg, while guard Tracy Lozier has tallied an average of 9.1 ppg, and 3.8 assists.
Despite KU’s lopsided loss to Texas — which dominated the Jayhawks on the glass with a 40-24 rebounding advantage — or KU’s recent struggles in Columbia, forward Crystal Kemp said the Jayhawks liked their chances.
“We are walking out of the game with our heads up,” Kemp said after the loss to Texas. “It’s a learning experience for us and now we know what we have to do. There are not going to be many teams that go to the boards as Texas does.
“We need to take the momentum that we have from this game into the game against Missouri.”
6Sports video: KU women looking ahead to Mizzou