Web-posted June 20, 2001
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José Alfredo Flores
Sports Editor
What a time, a great time, to be a Tiger. After having one of the best seasons in team history, the Missouri women’s basketball team recently took a two-week trip through Europe to play in four exhibition games against club and junior national teams. After a 20-10 season, that included not only a berth into the NCAA Tournament but a Sweet 16 appearance — the best season in more than 20 years the Tigers’ trip was well earned. But it wasn’t all pleasure without business.
“The competition is supposed to be really good, very physical up-tempo, so we’ll have our work cut out for us,” senior Natalie Bright said to reporters recently. “These practices have been all business, so we’re taking this very seriously. We’ll have some fun time, of course, but we’re taking these games very seriously because we want to get better as a team.”
During the European excursion the team also had time to take in sights, such as the Eiffel Tower and tours of Brussels, Belgium, and Paris. Missouri went perfect in its four game tour of Europe and returned to campus in early June.
In the first game of the trip on May 27, Missouri defeated the Dutch Junior National Team 68-54. The Tigers had a 19-4 run in the fourth quarter. Evan Unrau, Amy Loftus and Tracy Lozier each scored 13 points.
On May 28, Missouri beat Belgium’s Spirou PDL Charleroi 93-73, thanks to a 20-6 run in the third quarter. The Tigers had a 46-42 halftime lead. Kerensa Barr led the Tigers with 21 points and 11 rebounds, Tracy Franklin had 16 points, Lozier had 15, Unrau had 13 and Bright had 11.
The Tigers beat Blankenberge of Belgium 97-72 on May 30 behind 20 points from Loftus and 11 rebounds from Wannette Smith.
In the final game on May 31, Missouri destroyed Belgium’s Houthalen BBC 105-30, before a standing-room only crowd. Loftus led the Tigers with 19 points and Unrau had 18 points and 15 rebounds, to give the power forward three double-doubles in the Tigers’ four games abroad.
During the four games, Barr and Unrau led the team in scoring, averaging 13.5 points per game, and Unrau also led the Tigers with 11.2 rebounds per game.
Barr honored
It seems that Barr can’t stay away from Europe. The starting point guard was named to play on a select team, featuring the top dozen women’s basketball players from the Big 12 Conference, which will take on teams in Austria and Germany.
During MU’s recent 12-day, four-game trip to Europe, Barr scored 54 points, the second-leading scorer on the team, and led the team with 18 assists. In the regular season, Barr was fifth in the Big 12 in assists with 4.6 per game, 10th in steals with 2.1 per game and fourth in assist/turnover ratio with 1.6. The West Plains native averaged 8.2 points and 5.3 rebounds per game for the Tigers.
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