Kansas City, Mo. ? Hold the brooms. Kansas University must knock off Missouri one more time to claim a women’s basketball season sweep.

KU owns two wins over the Tigers this season, but it’s a common conception in athletics that the third time isn’t always the charm.

“I’ve heard that,” KU junior Crystal Kemp said, “but we’ll prepare just the same. We’re going in zero-zero.”

KU and MU will go into the Big 12 Conference tournament as the No. 8 and No. 9 seeds respectively.

Tipoff will be at noon today at Municipal Auditorium in downtown Kansas City. The game will be on the Jayhawk Radio Network, including 1320 KLWN. It won’t be televised.

KU coach Bonnie Henrickson has stressed to her players the necessity of ignoring the first two Mizzou meetings.

“I’ve talked to them about how hard they say it is to beat a team three times,” she said, “but I don’t want them to get that between their ears.”

Kemp is convinced and so is point guard Erica Hallman, who says the scores of the first two games against Missouri are irrelevant.

“That doesn’t mean anything,” Hallman said. “We’ve got to come out with our A-game.”

Kansas definitely had its A-game Feb. 5 in Columbia, Mo. That’s the day KU raced to an 18-2 lead and cruised to a 60-42 victory. The Jayhawks romped even though Kemp, their leading scorer and rebounder, played only 19 minutes because of foul trouble and settled for six points and six rebounds.

Three weeks earlier in Allen Fieldhouse, Kemp scored 22 points and snatched 14 rebounds in the Jayhawks’ 63-61 victory over the Tigers. KU had to overcome a 31-26 halftime deficit in order to post its first league victory of the season.

6Sports video: Jayhawks prepare for women’s Big 12 Tournament Jayhawks seek sweep today against Tigers Woodling: Henrickson has Kansas headed in right direction KU-MU game notes (.pdf)

The game matching the 8-9 seeds traditionally is the closest in the tournament’s first round and today’s clash between the two Border War combatants shouldn’t be an exception.

“It’s a great match-up,” Henrickson said, “and with the rivalry it should be an intensive game.”

When KU flogged the Tigers at the new Mizzou Arena, guard Kaylee Brown picked up the scoring slack with Kemp in foul trouble by scoring 15 points. Freshman Taylor McIntosh scored 10 points and grabbed 16 rebounds.

McIntosh had started every game until the Jayhawks’ regular-season finale at Iowa State a week ago today. Henrickson opened with another freshman, Jamie Boyd, in place of McIntosh.

Henrickson hasn’t decided whether to start Boyd or McIntosh today against the Tigers.

“These kids understand it doesn’t matter who starts,” the KU coach said. “Whether Taylor starts or comes off the bench, she’ll help us win.”

Today’s winner will have to face regular-season champion Baylor at noon Wednesday. Baylor and the other top four seeds all drew first-round byes.