{"id":218372,"date":"2025-09-11T14:30:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T14:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/218372\/"},"modified":"2025-09-11T14:30:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T14:30:15","slug":"the-next-front-a-look-back-at-big-moments-in-the-womens-basketball-border-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/218372\/","title":{"rendered":"The next front: A look back at big moments in the women\u2019s basketball Border War"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Kansas coach Brandon Schneider is jubilant during the game against Missouri during the second round of the WNIT on Monday, March 20, 2023. Kansas advances with a 75-45 win over Missouri.<\/p>\n


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With the football edition of Kansas-Missouri in the rearview mirror, next up is another sport in which meetings between the two schools have been few and far between.<\/p>\n

The KU and MU women\u2019s basketball teams, who have plenty of history of their own dating back to the 1970s, will rekindle their own edition of the rivalry later this fall in a neutral-site matchup in Kansas City, Missouri.<\/p>\n

There was a postseason WNIT date in March 2023, but it\u2019ll be the first time the schools have put each other on the schedule since they were conference rivals back in the 2011-12 season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are excited to compete in the T-Mobile Center on November 15,\u201d Kansas coach Brandon Schneider said in a press release when the matchup was announced in June. \u201cAs a program, we greatly understand the intensity of the rivalry and look forward to playing in the venue that will host the 2026 Big 12 Championship.\u201d<\/p>\n

KU features plenty of players from either side of the state line who should understand the complexities of the matchup, headlined by star junior guard S\u2019Mya Nichols and highly touted freshman forward Jaliya Davis, who are both from Overland Park. Guard Sania Copeland is from Kansas City, Kansas, and Regan Williams comes from the Missouri side of the state line.<\/p>\n

The Tigers are entering their first season under new head coach Kellie Harper, who led Tennessee for five seasons with four NCAA Tournament trips (the 2020 tournament was canceled) before she was let go after the 2023-24 campaign. Former coach Robin Pingeton left for Wisconsin after Missouri went 14-18 (3-13 SEC) last year.. <\/p>\n

Missouri has not finished with a winning record in conference play since 2019. The Tigers return Grace Slaughter, a 6-foot-2 guard from Grain Valley, Missouri, who averaged 15.0 points per game last year, and add a slew of new players like Shannon Dowell, an Illinois State transfer guard who was an all-freshman second-team all-conference selection in the Missouri Valley Conference.<\/p>\n

They will meet the Jayhawks to renew the all-time series, which KU leads 44-38.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is one of the fiercest rivalries college athletics has to offer. It is a great opportunity for our fans and our team,\u201d Harper said in a release. \u201cIt is important to keep traditions alive in the changing landscape of collegiate sports. I understand what this game means to our fans and I am excited to be on the sidelines for my first Border War.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a look back at some key moments in the history of the rivalry, in reverse chronological order:<\/p>\n

\"article<\/p>\n

Kansas junior Chandler Prater is jubilant during the game against Missouri during the second round of the WNIT on Monday, March 20, 2023. Kansas advances with a 75-45 win over Missouri.<\/p>\n

March 20, 2023<\/strong>: The programs reunited in the second round of the WNIT, with the Jayhawks hosting the Tigers at Allen Fieldhouse for what was the first meeting between the two teams since Missouri left the conference in 2012. KU had been snubbed from the NCAA Tournament after a surprise loss to TCU in the first round of the Big 12 tournament.<\/p>\n

The rivalry reunion ended up a lopsided game in KU\u2019s favor in which Mizzou needed more than six minutes to score a point and went scoreless for nearly five minutes again in the second quarter. The Jayhawks were up 16 by the break and cruised to a 75-47 victory. All five KU starters reached double figures, led by 21 points from Zakiyah Franklin, as the Jayhawks shot 51% on the day. <\/p>\n

Schneider\u2019s Jayhawks went on to win the WNIT altogether with successive victories over Nebraska, Arkansas, Washington and Columbia.<\/p>\n

\"articleRichard Gwin<\/p>\n

Kansas guard Angel Goodrich goes up for a shot between Missouri defenders Christine Flores, left, and BreAnna Brock. Missouri picked up its first Big 12 victory with a 70-65 win over KU on Saturday afternoon at Allen Fieldhouse.<\/p>\n

Feb. 18, 2012<\/strong>: The 82nd and, for 11 years, final iteration of the Border Showdown went against the Jayhawks, and in quite grim fashion. KU, which had already beaten Mizzou in Columbia, Missouri, earlier in conference play, fell 70-65 to a squad that had been averaging less than 54 points in league games and had entered 0-13 in the Big 12.<\/p>\n

Christine Flores scored 24 points with six rebounds for the Tigers, who led 37-22 at halftime after shooting 6-for-8 from beyond the arc. The Jayhawks chipped away at their deficit with a 10-4 run early in the second half and made it a one-possession game on a pair of occasions \u2014 on Aishah Sutherland\u2019s layup with 4:49 to go and Natalie Knight\u2019s pair of free throws with just over a minute remaining \u2014 but a key turnover on a bounce pass by Angel Goodrich precipitated Flores\u2019 final game-clinching shots from the foul line. Sutherland led KU with 23 points of her own.<\/p>\n

The loss hurt KU\u2019s postseason hopes, and after the game, then-KU coach Bonnie Henrickson called it \u201ca dagger.\u201d There was something of a happy ending for the Jayhawks, though. They beat Texas Tech in Lubbock for the first time in 34 years in their next game and despite losing three of their last four slipped into the NCAA Tournament as a No. 11 seed for Henrickson\u2019s first March Madness berth of her KU tenure. The Jayhawks proceeded to upset Nebraska and Delaware (and eventual two-time WNBA MVP Elena Delle Donne) and reach the Sweet 16, where they did give up a 14-point lead and lost to powerhouse Tennessee.<\/p>\n

Jan. 10, 2004<\/strong>: This game, a 55-52 road victory for KU in Columbia led by Crystal Kemp\u2019s 20 points that snapped a seven-game losing streak against the Tigers, in which Missouri\u2019s Tracy Lozier came up short on a potential game-tying 3 in the final seconds, was more significant for what happened afterward: a fight between the two teams. <\/p>\n

Three players from KU, Kandis Bonner, Larisha Graves and Tamara Ransburg, and two from Missouri, Christelle N\u2019Garsanet and MyEsha Perkins, were suspended for their roles in the melee. (Another Jayhawk, Lauren Ervin, was merely reprimanded.) <\/p>\n

Legendary KU coach Marian Washington said at the time that Missouri players made obscene gestures at the Jayhawks and that members of Missouri\u2019s band spat on KU\u2019s players. The Big 12, however, later said Washington\u2019s public comments in the wake of the game went against league policy and that \u201cthe issues raised publicly were not the cause of the unsporting behavior by players, based upon the information available at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was one of Washington\u2019s final games as a head coach, as she took a medical leave of absence later that month and retired after the season.<\/p>\n

Feb. 5, 1997<\/strong>: This was a big upset, as one of Washington\u2019s best teams \u2014 an eventual conference champion at 25-6 (14-2 Big 12) that finished No. 11 in the AP poll, KU\u2019s highest season-ending ranking in the NCAA era \u2014 fell in Columbia, 68-66, on a pair of free throws by Julie Helm with 9.8 seconds remaining.<\/p>\n

Tamecka Dixon, the Big 12 player of the year that season who later went on to a lengthy WNBA career, paced KU with 24 points, and Nakia Sanford added a 21-point, 14-rebound double-double. But Missouri\u2019s Tanisha Johnson scored all 14 of her points in the second half to lead the Tigers to just their second league win of the season.<\/p>\n

The Jayhawks benefited from the fact that Texas also sustained a loss to Texas Tech, and KU eventually cleared Texas and Colorado by a full two games for the league title. The previous year, KU had also lost in Columbia but found itself in first place with room to spare; two years prior, the Jayhawks hadn\u2019t been quite as lucky, when a similar last-minute loss at Missouri cost them sole possession of the title and they ended up finishing second to CU.<\/p>\n

Feb. 14, 1990<\/strong>: Washington earned her 300th win of an eventual 560 at the helm when Michelle Arnold, who had just four points on the night in 13 minutes, connected on a game-winning jump shot with a second remaining to beat the Tigers 60-59.<\/p>\n

Misti Channault had 15 points for KU, while Sharon Bax scored 17 for the Tigers. Missouri, which won the league that year, gave up a 15-point lead in the first half at its home arena. The two teams were tied at halftime and traded blows throughout the second period.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis win will be a very memorable one,\u201d Washington said afterward. \u201cProbably one day I will be able to sit back and look at the big picture, but for now I\u2019m just glad we\u2019re 18-7.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jan. 29, 1983<\/strong>: Here is how Journal-World sports writer Bill Woodard opened his story on this edition of the Border War: \u201cIt just doesn\u2019t get any more exciting than this, does it, Dr. Naismith?\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cIf perhaps, somewhere in the storied rafters of Allen Fieldhouse, the father of basketball was watching Saturday afternoon, he might have clasped his hands and sighed, \u2018I have done good,\u2019 for if ever there were a game to showcase his sport, this was it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Jayhawks took down the 13th-ranked Tigers, 118-111, in triple overtime, with Angie Snider supplying 38 points and nine rebounds and Barbara Adkins adding 26 points. Missouri\u2019s Dee Dee Polk set up Joni Davis for one buzzer-beater to tie the game at the end of the first overtime and then made one of her own in the second, prolonging KU\u2019s eventual upset victory in Lawrence. Eight combined players fouled out.<\/p>\n

Snider\u2019s 22 free-throw attempts are still a KU single-game record; Missouri\u2019s 38 fouls and 111 total points remain the most ever by a KU opponent. The Jayhawks have taken part in two triple-overtime games since: a 105-100 victory over Wake Forest on Dec. 30, 1988, and an 85-79 loss to Nebraska on Dec. 21, 2022.<\/p>\n

\"articleAP Photo\/Colin E. Braley<\/p>\n

Missouri guard Grace Slaughter (0) during an NCAA college basketball game on Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, in Columbia, Mo.<\/p>\n

\"articleDamon Young\/Kansas Athletics<\/p>\n

Kansas freshman Jaliya Davis is pictured in summer workouts on Tuesday, June 10, 2025, in Lawrence.<\/p>\n

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\n The next front: A look back at big moments in the women\u2019s basketball Border War \n <\/p>\n


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\"Author<\/p>\n

Written By Henry Greenstein<\/p>\n


\n Henry is the sports editor at the Lawrence Journal-World and KUsports.com, and serves as the KU beat writer while managing day-to-day sports coverage. He previously worked as a sports reporter at The Bakersfield Californian and is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis (B.A., Linguistics) and Arizona State University (M.A., Sports Journalism). Though a native of Los Angeles, he has frequently been told he does not give off “California vibes,” whatever that means. <\/p>\n

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