The Missouri Tigers women’s team hit the road to take on Syracuse in the first game of the Emerald Coast Classic in Destin, Florida.
Syracuse couldn’t miss on the way to an 82-59 win, marking the most points the Tigers have allowed this season, beating the 62 Missouri allowed to Vermont in the season opener.
Syracuse was 33-of-64 (51.6 percent) from the field, 4-of-10 (40 percent) from 3 and 12-of-17 (70.6 percent) at the free-throw line as the Orange poured in 27 points in the opening quarter and 25 in the third.
Missouri’s offense started hot, with the Tigers jumping out to an 8-1 lead after a 3-pointer and a layup from Grace Slaughter and a 3 from Ashton Judd, who returned to the starting lineup replacing Laniah Randle.
But the Orange came back to tie the game at 12 when Sophie Burrows hit a 3.
The teams went back and forth to tie at 14, 16, 18 and 20, then a Burrows 3 gave Syracuse the lead for good at 23-20 before Syracuse took a 27-22 lead into the second quarter.
Missouri shot just 2-of-13 in the second quarter, and 0-of-7 from 3, as Syracuse built its lead to 44-28 at halftime.
The Tiger offense played better coming out of halftime, shooting 5-of-13 to score 16 points in the third quarter, but Syracuse shot 81.8 percent in the third to take a 69-44 lead into the final break.
The Tigers outscored Syracuse 15-13 in the fourth.
Slaughter led the Tigers with 13 points on 3-of-8 shooting overall, 2-of-5 from 3 and 5-of-8 from the free-throw line.
Randle added nine points and seven rebounds off the bench.
Missouri shot 21-of-55 (38.2 percent) from the field, 6-of-22 (27you .3 percent) from 3 and 11-of-19 (57.9 percent) from the free-throw line.
Syracuse outrebounded Missouri 40-31 with a 46-22 lead in points in the paint.
Missouri won’t have long to recover as it will face the loser of Creighton and Wichita State at 5 p.m. Wednesday.
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