ATHLETICS

Women Reach WNIT Quarterfinals

Ferrucho hits layup with 7.8 left; Unrau's 26 points spoiled in homecoming

Jasai Ferrucho drove the length of the court for a layup with 7.8 seconds left to give Colorado State a 62-61 win over Missouri in the quarterfinals of the Women's National Invitation Tournament at Moby Arena on Thursday. With the loss, Missouri's fourth straight postseason appearance ends at 17-14.

Junior forward Evan Unrau (Fort Collins, Colo. / Rocky Mountain HS) scored a game-high 26 points, which tied the best output by a Tiger this season, in front of her hometown fans. Junior forward Melanie Fisher (St. Louis, Mo. / Principia HS / Southwest Missouri State) added her second double-double of the season with 12 points and a career-high-tying 14 rebounds, and junior forward Stretch James (Columbus, Ohio / Northland HS / Tyler [Texas] JC) added 10 points.

Senior guard Kerensa Barr (West Plains, Mo. / West Plains HS) had four points, seven rebounds and seven assists in her final game in the Black and Gold. Barr finishes as the Mizzou career leader in assists (489) and free-throw percentage (.812), second in steals (239) and 16th in scoring (1,161 points).

Shannon Strecker had 15 points and 10 rebounds for the Rams (21-12), who advance to the semifinals to face Baylor.

“I'm very proud of our young ladies,” Head Coach Cindy Stein said. “Colorado State got hot on us in the first half, and the second half was up for grabs — loose balls and rebounds. I thought we played hard throughout the game.” Stein then turned the attention to her departing point guard. “Kerensa Barr has been a tremendous role model for the program. She's just been a tremendous lady. We're proud to have had her with us for four years.”

Colorado State took advantage of the open seams of the Missouri defense for several baskets underneath, and an Ashley Augspurger 3-pointer gave the Rams a 13-3 lead with 15 minutes, 33 seconds remaining in the first half.

Yet on the strength of Unrau's shooting — she converted a pair of conventional 3-point plays along with a trey to pull Mizzou within a pair at 17-15. In that span, Unrau had all but two of the Tigers' points.

James was fed underneath from sophomore guard Lauren Podratz (Maple Grove, Minn. / Osseo HS). On the Tigers' next possession, James tossed an inside feed back out to Barr, who found junior guard Tracy Lozier (Leawood, Kan. / Blue Valley North HS) in the corner for a 3-pointer that gave Mizzou its first lead (24-22) with 5:47 left in the first.

A pair of Vanessa Espinoza free throws put CSU up by four, yet Fisher finished off Mizzou's third offensive rebound of the possession to help send Missouri into the halftime break with just a 32-30 deficit. Unrau had 17 points to lead all scorers at the half.

The Tigers used a 10-0 run over a span of 4:16 to get a 44-38 lead with 13:34 left in the game. In that run, Fisher had three straight baskets for the Tigers. The Rams took a 53-51 lead on a 3-point play by Strecker, yet a Barr driving layup and a Fisher putback restored the Tiger lead.

Strecker twice hit a free throw in 1-and-1 situations in the final 2:00, the second of which pulled CSU within a point (61-60) with 47.1 seconds left. Neither team was able to score on its next possessions, setting up Ferrucho's drive. After a pair of timeouts, Barr took the ball up the court and drove the right side of the lane into traffic, which forced her to scoop a layup that hit the front of the rim and bounded into the lane as the final buzzer sounded.

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Last Update: March 12, 2007