Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team to visit unbeaten Missouri

Coach Rekha Patterson used the word confident several times to describe the Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team's next opponent.

Whether it was confidence in their strategy on the court or their personnel, or the confidence that has come from a hot start to the season, that's what the Missouri Tigers exude to Patterson.

The Redhawks will face their in-state foe today with the tip-off at 7 p.m. in Columbia, Missouri.

The Tigers will try to keep their undefeated season intact. They enter the contest at 7-0, which matches the program's best start under sixth-year coach Robin Pingeton.

"They are playing really confident, and their team chemistry is really good, you can see it on the floor," Patterson said.

Patterson strives for her players to compete with that same conviction. She's seen glimpses of that during the Redhawks' 4-3 start to the season.

Even after losing two in a row in the UTEP Classic on Friday and Saturday -- a 65-64 buzzer-beater loss to Idaho State and an 85-67 loss to UC Riverside -- Patterson's impressed with the progress in her first season at the helm.

"I learned that I've got a tough bunch that will not quit, and I like that," Patterson said. "They are resilient, and they are learning how, when they face adversity, how to come together, and I think those are all lessons that we will need to use once we get into conference play. Non-conference is all about seeing different teams, working together and putting yourself in a position to reflect on what happened in the non-conference once you get into conference."

The Tigers are one of the toughest tests for Southeast this season, although Patterson noted some similarities to the Redhawks' most recent opponent, UC Riverside.

Size will be a challenge for the Redhawks as 12 of Mizzou's 14 players are listed as 5-foot-10 or taller.

"They'll probably be bigger than any team that we've seen," Patterson said. "With them being in the SEC that's a little bit different than anything else we've seen. But again, they're playing really confident. I think we saw that against UC Riverside, a team that knows exactly what it is they want to do and they do it well. Riverside was big as well."

Four Tigers are averaging double-figure scoring. True freshman Sophie Cunningham, a 6-1 guard, averages 15.1 points and 5.6 rebounds per game. She's knocked down 55.6 percent of her shots from the field, including 50 percent from beyond the 3-point arc on her 26 attempts.

She broke Mizzou's single-game scoring record in the fourth game of the season with 42 points against Wake Forest.

Junior Jordan Frericks, a 6-1 forward, averages 12.7 points, shooting 57.6 percent from the field, and 8.1 rebounds. She's also blocked 10 shots.

Junior guard Sierra Michaelis, who is 5-10, averages 11.4 points and is a 50 percent shooter. She's knocked down a team-high 14 of 36 3-point attempts.

True freshman forward Cierra Porter, who is 6-4, averages 10.4 points on 60.5 percent shooting, and 4.1 rebounds.

"They're big, they're long, they can shoot it, they can score in the post, so they are a very balanced basketball team," Patterson said.

Mizzou is averaging 78 points, 41.7 rebounds and 17.1 assists per game. The Tigers are coming off the Hilton Concord Thanksgiving Classic in Moraga, California. They defeated Northeastern and Saint Mary's to claim the tournament title.

Mizzou's 69-56 win against Northeastern and 94-81 defeat of Wake Forest were its closest margins of victory this season.

The Tigers' average margin for the other five games was 29.3. They defeated Ohio Valley Conference preseason favorite SIU Edwardsville 75-46 on Nov. 24.

"They play with good pace for them," Patterson said. "They're not necessarily like really fast, but they cut hard and they screen hard and they move well without the ball, and they pass really well, so we're going to have our hands full, for sure."

Mizzou, which finished last season 19-14 and 7-9 in the SEC, beat the Redhawks 88-42 last season.

Southeast turned the ball over 19 times and shot 23.6 percent from the field in that loss.

"It's just like any other game. We work every day to be our best," Patterson said. "We're going to give great energy, effort, attitude. We're going to compete. We will have a game plan in place that we feel like puts our players in a position to be successful. When you go on the road you've got to be tough -- tough enough to see the ball go through the hoop, tough enough to maybe not get calls, tough enough just to be on the road against a really good SEC basketball team. We're going to have to rebound the ball, take care of the ball, going to have to make some extra passes, and we're definitely going to have to make shots."

Junior point guard Bri Mitchell was cleared to practice Monday after missing the last three games with a mild foot sprain.

"We'll see how her body responds on two days of practice, and she'll be in uniform on Wednesday," Patterson said.