The Missouri Tigers led 46-32 with 8:18 left in the third quarter after a Grace Slaughter layup.
Then the No. 15-seeded Tigers would score just nine points in the final 18 minutes as they dropped a 75-55 game to the No. 10-seeded Mississippi State Bulldogs in the first round of the SEC Tournament on Wednesday.
The loss likely ends the Tigers’ season with a record of 14-18 overall and 3-13 in the SEC and the 15-year tenure of Robin Pingeton with a record of 250-218 with the Tigers and 394-298 as a head coach.
The Tigers have talked all season about being able to stop the bleeding, but Wednesday was the worst Missouri fans saw as the Tigers did not score from the field between the 8:28 mark of the third and the 4:39 mark of the fourth, missing 18 consecutive attempts. The lone Missouri point in that stretch was a Slaughter free throw that made it a 35-1 Mississippi State run.
Missouri’s 14-point lead early in the third turned into a 20-point Mississippi State lead with 5:14 left to play.
Missouri was able to score slightly down the stretch, keeping the lead at about 20 points the rest of the way.
Ashton Judd led Missouri with 15 points and seven rebounds, reaching 1,000 career points, while Nyah Wilson added 11 points off the bench.
No other Tiger reached double figures.
Missouri controlled the game in the early going with two Angelique Ngalakulondi free throws putting the Tigers ahead 10-6 with 5:56 left in the first, then a Slaughter 3-pointer with 1:01 left made it 20-18 Missouri heading to the second quarter.
Wilson hit two free throws and Judd made a 3 to put Missouri up 25-20, then a Tilda Sjokvist 3 created a 35-26 Missouri lead with 5:22 left before halftime.
The Tigers never reached a double-digit lead in the first half, but took a 39-32 lead into the break.
Then they scored the first seven points of the second half with Averi Kroenke hitting a jumper, Wilson sinking a 3 and Slaughter hitting the layup that created the 14-point Tiger lead before the long Mississippi State run.
Four Mississippi State players scored in double figures as the Bulldogs answered the Tigers’ buzzer-beating win on Jan. 27 in dominant fashion.
With the win, the Bulldogs move on to face No. 7-seeded Ole Miss at 5 p.m. today.
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