After starting the season just 1-2, the Missouri Tigers won their fourth consecutive game Friday as they beat Little Rock 78-49 at Mizzou Arena.

With tipoff at 11:30 a.m. instead of the Tigers’ usual evening start, coach Robin Pingeton said preparation had to look a little different following Wednesday’s big win.

“We watched film, we did get up and down a little bit, I guess, yesterday,” Pingeton said. “I think it helps that we’ve gone so deep into our bench. … That’s really been my focus these last two games, knowing that we have four games in six days.”

But that difference in preparation didn’t change the Tigers’ momentum following their 112-59 win against Saint Louis earlier in the week.

Missouri stormed out to a 10-2 lead on the back of Grace Slaughter, who poured in 14 first-quarter points, including seven of the team’s first 10. Slaughter ended the game with a co-game high 19 points on 7-of-12 shooting, while making 3-of-3 from beyond the arc to go with seven rebounds.

“The ball just happened to be in my hands at the right time,” Slaughter said. “I think my teammates did a great job of just pushing and we’ve really been emphasizing in practice because we say against SLU just the benefits of running the court. I think that showed up quite a bit in today’s game.”

Nyah Wilson lost the handle on the ball a couple of plays later, but immediately got it back with a steal, then dished it to Averi Kroenke, who followed with a pass to Slaughter for a right-wing 3 to put the Tigers up 16-4. Kroenke led the team with four assists. She has led the team in assists in 3-of-4 games since joining the starting lineup.

Slaughter then connected on another layup to put the Tigers up 18-4 with 4:21 left in the first.

Laniah Randle then poured in the Tigers’ next five points before Slaughter hit a jumper to send the Tigers into the first break leading 25-7.

“I thought (Slaughter) had some really good looks, good takes, she played with great pace,” Pingeton said. “She got open a couple of times with nobody around. That’s one kid on our team I definitely am going to make sure is guarded hard if I’m playing against her.”

The second quarter had been an issue for the Tigers in most of their first handful of games before Wednesday, and it seemed like the issues had returned as Little Rock opened the second-quarter on a 8-2 run to cut the lead to 27-15.

But Angelique Ngalakulondi grabbed an offensive rebound and was fouled, leading to an additional technical foul called on Little Rock.

Ngalakulondi hit one free throw, then Slaughter hit two for the technical and the Tigers were rolling again, using a 10-0 run to build a 37-15 lead with 5:04 left before halftime.

“It gave these guys an opportunity to get a drink of Gatorade and kind of refresh a little bit and make sure we were locked in,” Pingeton said of the extended break to review the technical. “... It just kind of had an odd flow to it, but I really compliment our players on their ability to stay locked in and stay focused and continue to attack.”

The Tigers extended as far as a 26-point lead before halftime when Kroenki grabbed an offensive rebound and tipped in a putback with 1:57 left.

Missouri took a 44-22 lead into halftime.

The Tigers continued to extend the lead out of the break as Wilson hit a layup and a free throw to extend the lead to 57-26 with 4:36 left. Wilson ended with 19 points to co-lead the Tigers as she shot 7-of-10 overall and 3-of-4 from 3 to go with three rebounds and three assists.

“I really, really have that trust and faith in my teammates and I feel like they feel the same about me,” Wilson said.

Then an Ashton Judd layup made it 59-26 with 4:05 left for Missouri’s biggest lead to that point before Wilson added two layups in the final two minutes to extend the lead to 66-30 at the final break.

Abbey Schreacke hit a jumper to start the fourth quarter, creating a 68-30 lead for Missouri’s biggest lead of the night, then the Tiger backups took over the rest of the way.

The offense stumbled as Little Rock outscored the Tigers 19-12 in the fourth, but never cut the lead within 30 points until a Perina Lieme layup with 17 seconds left created the final margin.

Missouri shot 28-of-61 (45.9 percent) from the field, 8-of-22 (36.4 percent) from 3 and 14-of-16 (87.5 percent) at the free-throw line. The Tigers did not make more than seven 3s in any of their first four games, but have had performances of 12, 11 and eight in the past three matchups.

The Tigers outrebounded Little Rock 45-29 and held the Trojans to 2-of-18 (11 percent) from beyond the arc.

Ngalakulondi led the Tigers with eight rebounds, to go with nine points.

Missouri (5-2) will hit the road to Florida to play Syracuse at 5 p.m. Monday in the Emerald Coast Classic.

“We’ve got a lot of season in front of us and we know that there’s going to be a lot of challenges in front of us,” Pingeton said. “... I am making sure that every game we continue to fine tune our offense, fine tune our defense, get better from a rebounding standpoint, continue to move the ball.”

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