ST. LOUIS -- Jackie Stiles made a plea to WNBA teams after Southwest Missouri State's 81-64 loss to Purdue.

"Please, somebody take me," Stiles said, "so this doesn't have to be my last basketball game."

Uh, she doesn't have anything to worry about in that department. WNBA teams already coveted the sweet-shooting Stiles, even before her marvelous month of March.

But since Stiles is quite a worrier, she won't believe she's going to get a chance to play pro basketball until she hears her name called.

Which most assuredly will be in the first round. And, who knows, she may be the first player chosen.

Seattle has the first pick in the draft next month, and the Storm needs...everything. A couple of foreign stars might go ahead of her. And it remains to be seen how Tennessee's Tamika Catchings and Connecticut's Svetlana Abrosimova, both of whom currently are injured, will be evaluated by WNBA scouts.

But the league needs scorers. So Stiles absolutely has a place in the WNBA.

But Stiles has the humility and self-doubt that are especially endearing qualities in such a talented person. You could see after the game, as she sat surrounded by reporters in the SMS locker room, that Stiles had running through her mind the 14 shots she missed and the points she didn't score.

The kid who never wears out admitted that she was worn out. She said she needed a couple days of rest. Coach Cheryl Burnett has finally convinced Stiles that her body just might need a break every once in a while.

"I didn't used to believe in that," Stiles said. "But now I do."

However, Stiles really doesn't know much about how to relax. What's the most time she's ever taken off and not shot a basketball?

Stiles smiled just a little and said, "Maybe two days."

Basketball always has been paramount to Stiles. She got engaged to Matt Barrett last year, but she has no idea when the wedding will be.

"Well, I don't know," Stiles said. "I guess we're going to have to sit down and talk about that."

Stiles, though, is not the only SMS player who isn't all that eager to look to the future just yet. Fellow senior Tara Mitchem will graduate in May, but when asked recently what she plans to do, she said: "I have no idea. I want us to keep playing so I don't have to think about it."

Now, of course, that's what the SMS seniors do have to think about: what's next. That and this final game, in which they said they didn't play to anywhere near their ability.

"Now comes kind of like a depression," forward Carly Deer said. "With the closeness of this team, though, we'll get each other through it. Hopefully, we'll all stick together. Especially for Jackie."

Stiles and Deer are roommates. Deer has long been the one who tries to help the high-strung Stiles laugh sometimes and take it easy on herself. Stiles has said she never sleeps well after a game -- win or lose -- because she's still so wound up no matter how much energy she expends.

Friday, even though she said she was tired, you got the feeling that Stiles wouldn't doze off very easily. She has a basketball future to think about, and so much past to contemplate as well.

"I can't imagine playing basketball and getting paid for it," Stiles said.

Next month, she'll find out it won't be a matter of imagination.