SEC WOMEN

Arkansas setting up in three D

Arkansas freshman Dominique Wilson is averaging 14.3 points in her last three games.

— Arkansas’ women’s basketball team beat Missouri at its own game when the teams met in Columbia, Mo., on Jan. 24.

Razorbacks guard Erin Gatling hit 6 of 10 threepointers, equaling the Tigers’ 6-of-20 effort, and scored a career-best 23 points in Arkansas’ 58-50 victory.

Three-point shooting will be the focus again today at Walton Arena, when Missouri (15-10, 4-7) will try to avenge one of its three home losses.

Arkansas (16-8, 4-7) enters the game wary of Missouri’s 656 three-point attempts, a school record that is nearly 300 more than the average number of three-pointers (358) attempted by the other 13 SEC teams.

“With every game they play in the SEC, they’re getting guarded tighter and tighter on the three-point line,” Arkansas Coach Tom Collen said. “The teams that don’t do a good job of guarding it are getting beat by them.”

Missouri’s three-point barrage is led by reserve guard Morgan Eye, who has made 95 of 231 three-pointerslost two in a row and six of their past nine games, but one of those victories was an 80-63 defeat of then-No. 9 Tennessee, an SEC co-leader along with Texas A&M.

The Razorbacks, in position for their first back-toback victories in SEC play, would also like to assert themselves in the lane.

“They’re pretty physical in the post, and they got after us and they got into us,” Arkansas’ leading scorer, Sarah Watkins, said of the first meeting against the Tigers. “I know personally I was in foul trouble a little.”(41.1 percent) and leads the Tigers with an average of 13.5 points per game.

“They’ve got some of the best shooters in the conference,” Gatling said. “Thankfully the last time we played them they missed some shots, but we gave them way too many open threes. I think that’s going to be really crucial.”

Arkansas is aiming for a series sweep of a Missouri team playing its first season in the SEC. The Tigers have

Sports, Pages 21 on 02/17/2013