The shots were there — they just weren’t going in.
Jordan Frericks crossed over the Saint Louis defender and went up for an easy layup. The crowd began to cheer, but the excitement turned into a disappointed sigh when the ball rolled off the rim back into the hands of the Billikens.
Sophie Cunningham did the same in the second half of Missouri’s 70-58 win over SLU (4-7) Friday night. The junior guard skirted around a defender in the corner and drove under the hoop for a reverse layup. The ball hit the rim … and bounced off.
Somehow, though, Missouri (8-1) found a way to win its eighth straight game.
Actually, the somehow was, really, a someone. Cierra Porter scored 19 points in the second half to take the lead over SLU and lead Missouri to the win — although she wouldn’t admit her own dominance after the game.
“Our whole team realized that our three-point shots weren’t falling, so we had to start looking inside,” Porter said. “It was just winning time. We all knew how much we wanted to win this game, we just had to turn into another gear even though the first three quarters didn’t go the way we wanted to.”
The first three quarters didn’t go the way anyone in Mizzou Arena wanted them to, except, of course, SLU’s bench and a small-but-mighty Billiken fan section.
The Tigers shot 32 percent in the first half as they faced post problems from the Billikens. SLU’s Tara Dusharm effectively shut down Porter, who was 1-4 with only four points — including two free throws — in the first half. Porter sat out the final few minutes of the half with three fouls.
Because of Dusharm’s 6-foot-5 frame, Missouri was forced to take shots from far away. On a day that the ball wasn’t going in the net, it was less than ideal.
“(Dusharm) is a kid that’s a handful,” SLU head coach Lisa Stone — who played with Lisa Porter at Iowa — said. “You can’t stop her. You can’t teach 6-5 … She really helped us. She puts her arms up like that, and she’s an aircraft carrier. This is great experience for her.”
Porter stands at 6-foot-4. She and Dusharm battled a physical game throughout the three quarters, something that is pretty similar to what Porter faces in SEC play. Good thing, because Missouri opens SEC play at Alabama on Dec. 31.
“(Porter) used to playing against tall, strong post players, and I thought (Dusharm) did a great job tonight,” Robin Pingeton said. “But I thought (Porter) really battled and did a tremendous job for us.”
Pingeton said the Tigers handled the traffic better in the second half, although the shooting woes didn’t let up when the half started. The Tigers shot 4-11 in the third quarter and the Billikens crept to a 41-39 lead.
Foul trouble began to plague the Billikens. SLU’s Jenny Vilet, Maddison Gits and Aaliyah Covington fouled out in the final 10 minutes. Missouri senior Jordan Frericks fouled out in the final five.
With the fouls, though, the Tigers began their run. They shot 8-15 from the floor in the fourth quarter — 17 points — to take the momentum and, eventually, the lead. Missouri became more patient instead of trying to get the shot off right away, and it worked. Lanes opened up, and the Tigers found the net.
Instead of the ball rolling off the rim like it did early on Friday night, it finally began dropping through the hoop. As the buzzer signaled the end of the game and the Tigers continued their longest win streak since 2015, the shots were there. And now, they were going in.
