News Article – March 2, 2001

By JOHN J. MESH
Great Bend Tribune
3/2/01

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — Jackie Stiles needed 20 points. She got 30. Stiles became the NCAA Division women’s basketball record-holder Thursday night at the Hammons Student Center in Springfield, Mo., against the Creighton Bluejays. And she did it as the woman who held the record for 13 years looked on. Oh yes, the game. The Southwest Missouri State Bears destroyed Creighton 94-59 in a crucial Missouri Valley Conference game. The Bears improved to 21-5 overall and 15-2 in league play. Creighton dropped to 17-9 overall and 11-6 in Valley play. Patricia Hoskins, who set the NCAA record with 3,122 points, was flown in from Greenville, Miss., to witness her mark being broken by Stiles, a 5-foot-8 senior from Claflin. Stiles scored the record-breaking bucket at the 18:37 mark in the second half on a 3-pointer. She now has 3,133 career points. She made 11-of-17 field goal attempts, including 2-of-2 from 3-point range, and was 6-of-6 from the foul line. Stiles was honored during a postgame ceremony at midcourt with a standing room crowd of 9,155 fans looking on. After the game, a midcourt ceremony took place and it was declared “Jackie Stiles Day” in Missouri. Stiles received a proclamation from the Governor’s office and a plaque. A giant banner was unfurled congratulating Stiles and T-shirts were printed up to commemorate the occasion. ESPN also broke away from the Iowa-Penn State game to show the record-breaking basket, ESPNews showed the postgame press conference live and ESPN2 led off their “College Basketball 2Night” program to show the moment. Hoskins was jetted in by John Q. Hammons, the multi-millionaire hotel magnate for whom the Hammons Student Center is named. Stiles met with Hoskins very briefly during the ceremony. “What an incredible athlete. She was very gracious,” Stiles said. Stiles entered the game with 3,103 points. She needed 20 points to pass Hoskins, who played her collegiate basketball at Mississippi Valley State from 1986-89. Stiles also passed the second-place record of 3,115 points set by Drake’s Lori Bauman from 1981-84. Stiles said she was relieved that the pressure of breaking the record is now over so she can look forward to helping her teammates against Drake on Saturday. SMS trails Drake by one game. The Bulldogs defeated Wichita State on the road at Wichita. SMS beat WSU 89-85 in overtime Feb. 25 at Levitt Arena. SMS hosts Drake at 2:05 p.m. Saturday in a game that will decide the Valley title and the first seed in the league tournament March 8-10 at the Hammons Center. “Now we can concentrate on Saturday’s basketball game,” Stiles said. “We can focus on Drake.” Stiles sort of sensed she was closing in on the historical moment. “I can never keep track of these things. The crowd kept getting louder and louder so I knew I was close. I wanted to be more aggressive in the second half. I won’t be sleeping much. This is a moment I’ll never forget.” Stiles scored the first basket of the game at the 19:22 mark. She scored on a jumper at the 17:09 mark. Stiles, who was guarded by Krissie Spanheimer and then Tanya Cenac of Creighton, was fouled hard and knocked to the floor by the Jays’ Dayna Finch at the 12:13 mark and drained two more free throws. She scored her seventh and eighth points at the foul line. The Bears chewed up the Jays inside with Erika Rante and led by 23 points at 40-17 with 3:52 left in the first half. Stiles scored on a offensive rebound at the 2:20 mark for her ninth and 10th points of the game to give the Bears a 42-17 lead. She hit a 3-pointer to move past Bauman into second-place on the all-time list. The Bears led at halftime 50-21. Rante scored 14 points, Stiles 13 and Erica Vicente 12. Angela Timmons scored 9 points to lead Creighton and Christy Neneman 6. Stiles scored the first 4 points for the Bears in the second half and needed just 3 points for the record and hit the record-breaker. She then started to put the mark away. The crowd started to chant “JACKIE. JACKIE. JACKIE.” The Bears led 59-28 and Stiles had scored the team’s first 11 points of the second half to give her 24. SMS coach Cheryl Burnett gave Stiles her first rest of the game at the 16 minute mark. The Bears built their lead to 67-30 before the Bluejays called a timeout. Creighton closed the gap to 69-37, but the rout was on. Stiles came back into the game and scored on a layup at the 13-minute mark for her 25th and 26th points. Her next basket came on a breakaway layup at the 10:10 mark. She went to the bench again at 9:44. Stiles returned to the lineup when teammate Melody Campbell fouled out at the 5:48 mark. She scored her 29th and 30th points at the foul line. Stiles sat out the final four minutes. Erica Vicente added 16 points for the Bears on 7-of-9 shooting. Rante finished with 14 points. Tara Mitchem added 8, Ann Cavey 7 and Stiles’ roommate Carly Deer 6. Deer grabbed 10 rebounds. Spanheimer led the Jays with 15 points. Neneman added 13. Burnett has seen history twice. Not only has she coached Stiles for four years, but she was a teammate of Lynette Woodard at the University of Kansas in the 1970s when Woodard scored 3,649 points. That total is the pre-NCAA record when the governing body of the women’s basketball was the AIAW. “It’s really a remarkable thing for me — the last four years one player has gotten all the attention,” Burnett said. “This is a tremendous tribute to the entire team. Our team has been willing to be screeners and passers for Jackie. “I don’t think it affected Jackie much. I coached Jackie Stiles and played with Lynette Woodard. I taught Lynette everything I know. I was the screener and passer for her. I feel privilege for that and this opportunity.” Creighton coach Connie Yori and Spanheimer, a senior who has been assigned to cover Stiles in 10 career games against her, were gracious in defeat and sensed their role in the historical moment. “Congratulations to Jackie — it’s a great honor to coach against her,” Yori said. “I was disappointed in our effort. I thought we couldn’t play worse than we did tonight. We’ve been a really good starting team this year, but tonight we put ourselves in a hole. “Chrissie Spanheimer did a good job on Jackie, but they did a nice job of sharing the ball. We doubled her and she was still able to score. This was a special occasion. Our athletes have great respect for her and the way she handled the situation.” Spanheimer said she has nothing but respect for Stiles. “She’s a great player,” she said. “She works hard to get where she’s at. It’s a challenge. My teammates and everyone’s aware of her. This is a big day for her. If she was going to hit the shot, I’m glad it happened tonight.” Stiles’ teammates felt she stayed within the team game. “Sometimes when Jackie has two people on her, we have opportunities to score,” Rante said. Deer said she is as relieved as her roommate that the record has been broken finally. “This was a good win for us,” she said. “Creighton is a quality team. We fed off the crowd — they were wild. This gives us confidence going into the Drake game. Finally it’s over. We can have a newspaper in the house and watch TV.” Vicente, who like Rante hails from Brazil, said she enjoys having Stiles as a teammate. “I’m so proud to be part of history,” she said. “We don’t have this in Brazil — only in America does this happen.”