At times, the Tigers were sloppy and slow, turning the ball over 14 times and getting beat on seemingly every loose ball until the fourth quarter. On the perimeter, they got outgunned and outshot, and inside hey were out-physicaled from beginning to end. In its season-opener against Western Illinois, Missouri was not at its best.
Yet, it still won.
Missouri rode the heroics of Amber Smith and her 27 points to overcome a seven-point fourth quarter deficit Tuesday, forcing overtime before toppling a feisty Western Illinois team 97-89 to open the 2019-20 regular season. Smith led all-scorers and ripped down 15 rebounds for a double-double in 35 minutes on the floor while fellow senior guard Jordan Chavis contributed 18 points on 70 percent shooting and a team-high eight assists.
Their efforts, along with 15 and 14 points, respectively, from guards Elle Brown and Jordan Roundtree, helped the Tigers to overcome several second half deficits and allowed Missouri pull out a game it likely shouldn’t have won. But at Mizzou Arena Tuesday, as was well that ended well.
“Western Illinois came out of the gates and played a little bit more aggressive than we did,” head coach Robin Pingeton said postgame. “But I’m proud of our team. It’s not always going to be easy. It’s not always going to be pretty. I kept reminding them that we can’t fix what happens in the first 30 minutes of the game, but we can sure take care of the last 10. We had a lot of kids step up tonight.”
Missouri's offensive stars were cooking out of the gate. Hayley Frank, who fouled out in the first minute of the fourth quarter, opened the scoring for the evening with a jumper from the free-throw line for the first points of her college career. The freshman from Strafford continued to show off her skill set with a running jumper and a contested lay-in before sinking a corner 3-pointer that put the Tigers ahead 17-15. She entered the break with nine points. Smith came out firing as well, scoring seven first quarter points, but foul trouble limited the senior guard. Smith sat for the final eight minutes of the half after picking up her second personal foul.
But while Missouri found success on the offensive end – the Tigers shot 50 percent from the field and from behind the 3-point line in half– they were dominated by the Leathernecks on the other. As the Tigers racked up buckets, Western Illinois torched them from deep, shooting 71 percent from the perimeter in the first quarter and finishing the half 7-13 from beyond the arc.
Inside, there was nothing Missouri could do to stop 6-foot-2 forward Evan Zars inside. The Tigers threw Frank and fellow forwards Hannah Schuchts and Brittany Garner at the Saint Louis University transfer, but none of them could contain the Leathernecks senior on the glass. Zars entered the half with 12 rebounds, only six fewer than Missouri’s team total. She finished the night with 20 rebounds, proving herself a problem for the Tigers inside from start to finish.
“(Zars) has got a niche and she really owned what she did really well,” Pingeton said. “You’ve got to give her credit. For us, this was a huge wake up call. It’s one thing when you’re missing some box outs against the scout team, but when it’s the season and you’re playing other Division I teams and you’re getting outrebounded, that’s something we’re going to own.”
Yet while Western Illinois had Zars and its sharp shooters on the perimeter, the Tigers had Chavis, and the senior guard helped Missouri weather the storm in a first half that saw 14 lead changes.
Coming off the worst statistical season of her career in 2018-19, the guard from North Carolina carried Missouri through the first half of the season opener, going 6-8 from the field and 3-5 from 3-point range to enter halftime with 15 points as Western Illinois piled up the 3-balls on the other end.
When the Tigers fell behind in the first half Tuesday, it was Chavis who stepped up and thrust Missouri back ahead, and it was her 3-point heave with five seconds to play before the half that sent the Tigers to the locker room with a 46-44 lead.
“Jordan really kept us in the game in the first half,” Pingeton said. “She hit big shot after big shot. As a point guard, she had eight assists and only two turnovers. That was a tremendous job by Jordan.”
After a pair of impressive showings during the preseason, Frank and fellow freshman Aijha Blackwell each struggled in their official Missouri debuts. The pair of five-star recruits were each featured in Pingeton’s starting five, but failed to live up to the expectations their preseason efforts that had built.
Frank flashed her scoring touch early but was unable to remain on the court for extended stretches as her foul count began to add up. When she picked up her fifth foul with 9:45 to play in the fourth quarter, Frank walked off the court with nine points and five rebounds to her name.
Blackwell, who averaged 20.5 points in the preseason, came away from Tuesday night with just one. The guard from St. Louis also struggled with fouls in her debut and finished the night 0-7 from the field with two rebounds.
Neither player was made available after the game
“They got into foul trouble and that was tough for them,” Chavis said. “But they’re good at coming back. They’re going to come back strong. You’ll see that Sunday.”
The all-out attack from Western Illinois only intensified in the third quarter, and with Frank and Blackwell spending much of the quarter on the bench in foul trouble, the Leathernecks claimed the lead. Missouri was once again rebounded, this time 13-8, and shot just 25 percent from the field, at one point going nearly four minutes without a score.
Western Illinois, meanwhile, remained hot, sinking mid-range jumpers, driving to the lane at ease and beating Missouri to every loose ball. The Leathernecks shot 40 percent on the quarter with former Hickman standout Danni Nichols dropping eight points on 3-5 shooting in the quarter. Nichols finished with 15 points and six rebounds on 75 percent shooting from deep.
As Missouri stalled, the Leathernecks dominated, and not even an 8-0 run powered by Brown and Smith could put the Tigers back ahead. Leading from the 8:34 mark in the third quarter on, Western Illinois entered the fourth quarter up 64-60.
“I thought Missouri got tired in the third quarter,” said Western Illinois head coach J.D. Gravina. “We were really pushing the ball and felt like we could just dribble down and get a layup. We kind of hit our stride as they were trying to get their stride.”
Things appeared bleak in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter when Frank exited the game and Western Illinois opened up a seven-point lead over the Tigers. That’s when Amber Smith came alive.
When the Leathernecks extended their to 68-61, Smith responded with baskets on consecutive possessions. Back on defense, the senior swiped the ball from a Western Illinois guard and delivered a pass to Brown on the break who finished through contact and drained a free throw. Just like that, the game was tied at 68 with 6:33 to play.
The teams traded buckets for the remainder of the fourth quarter with Smith, Brown and Roundtree carrying the offensive load for Missouri. When the Tigers needed points, Smith handled the ball, attacking the basket when necessary and other times finding cutting teammates, usually Brown or Roundtree, as Missouri’s offense finally began to hum.
Altogether, Smith scored 10 of her 27 points in the fourth quarter, willing to Tigers to overtime and looking much the part of the offensive weapon Missouri needs her to be this year.
“We stayed in the moment,” Smith said. “Like Coach P said, we dwell on the first three quarters. Our defense picked up, and our defense led to offense for us. We just dug in. We weren’t going to let this team beat us. Not on our home court.”
After using up much of its depth over the game’s first 40 minutes, Western Illinois faded in overtime. Roundtree opened the final period with an and-one followed by a corner three-pointer, and Smith flushed things wide open with a baseline jumper. Three-pointers from Schuchts and Chavis, and a pair of made free throws by Brown in the final minute put things on ice, and Missouri cruised to 1-0 on a night it really shouldn’t have.
Missouri returns to the floor at 2 p.m. Sunday to host the Nebraska Cornhuskers at Mizzou Arena. The game will be shown on SEC Network+.
