After coming up just short on a free throw attempt on the wing, Hayley Frank got the ball back on a pass from Jayla Kelly on a second-chance shot. With an Alabama defender on her back, Frank used her powerful build to back into her opponent and create some space for a fadeaway jump shot along the baseline that put her team up eight points with six minutes left in the first half.
In the next 20 minutes, the senior from Strafford, Missouri wouldn't attempt single shot while the Crimson Tide erupted for 49 second-half points on the way to a 76-69 payback win.
Though Frank managed to rack up 26 points, including 11 at the free throw line, she attempted just four shots in the second half and couldn’t carry the Tigers past a dominant offensive second half from Alabama by herself.
“She just battles,” head coach Robin Pingeton said. “She commands so much attention. She’s going against, sometimes double teams, sometimes three people on her, and she continues to play at a really high level for us.”
The Crimson Tide scored 20 points off 16 Missouri turnovers. The Alabama defense also did a masterful job of containing the Tigers’ leading scorer in the second half, limiting her looks to deep three-pointers, fadeaway jump shots and contested layups.
“You look at our turnovers, and those always come back to bite you,” Pingeton pointed out. “These are controllable turnovers, and we’re just not doing a great job of that.”
While Bama was minimizing Frank's impact, the same could not be said for Alabama guard Brittany Davis, whose 33 points led all scorers in the win. The Tide’s leading scorer notched 23 of those points in the second half on 8-11 shooting while making all five of her free throw attempts.
“We tried to switch on all that rub cut action, the dribble handoffs, to keep her in front and make her play on top of us,” Pingeton said. “They do a good job of putting her in some isolation positions and we obviously didn’t have an answer for her tonight.”
Though Missouri held Davis at bay in the first half, their perimeter defense and rebounding left something to be desired. These weaknesses worsened in the second half, giving Davis new life and allowing the Crimson Tide to seize the advantage early in the third quarter and get their offense rolling.
The Crimson Tide’s efforts in the interior paid enormous dividends, especially down the stretch as they wore down the Tiger defense and closed out the game. Alabama overcame a poor performance from beyond the arc, shooting just 6-22 for the game. But the Tide made 5-of-12 from deep while shooting 15-27 overall. The Crimson Tide pounded the ball inside, scoring 34 points in the paint and finishing 18-18 from the charity stripe.
“You can’t allow close to 50 points in a half and expect to win” Pingeton acknowledged.
“We really have to buy into what the coaches tell us,” Tiger guard Haley Troup said. “Our backs are against the wall, and we have to have a chip on our shoulders. We have to go into games and be grittier and more physical. I felt like we didn’t do that tonight.”
Missouri also suffered poor showings from key starters Mama Dembele, Lauren Hansen and Jayla Kelly, who combined for 10 points on 1-15 shooting while adding four assists and seven rebounds.
Down the stretch, Pingeton left Hansen and Kelly out of the lineup in exchange for Troup and Ashton Judd, who scored the second (13) and third (12) most points for Missouri, respectively.
The loss puts the Tigers further and further out of NCAA tournament contention as time runs out for them to prove themselves. This loss in particular, their seventh in their past eight games, cuts deep as it leaves them without a key win over a high-quality Alabama squad.
“If we want to go to the NCAA tournament we’ve got to win out, and we’ll see how we respond to that,” Pingeton said. “ I love being in the trenches with them. We’re going to figure it out.”
The Tigers get the week to rest before taking a trip to Fayetteville for a game against Arkansas on Sunday at 2 p.m. in an effort to work their way back to the NCAA Tournament.
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