Through the first third of the season, the Missouri Tiger women hadn't had to hold on to many close leads at the end of games.

Every game except a win against Tulane had been at least a double-digit win, two blowout losses and one close loss.

But the Tigers were put to the test late Thursday night as they held on to beat the SMU Mustangs 68-61, the closest win of the season, in the SEC/ACC Challenge at Mizzou Arena.

"I felt like we bent, but we didn't break and we found a way to close it up down the stretch," Missouri coach Robin Pingeton said.

Heading to the fourth quarter, the Tigers led just 52-44 then a quick 7-1 run had the Mustangs within 53-51 with 7:52 left to play.

The Tiger offense went quite, as Ashton Judd, who had led Mizzou's offense for much of the game as she recorded 14 points on 5-of-14 shooting overall and 3-of-7 from beyond the arc, missed four consecutive attempts early in the quarter.

Judd exited and the Mustangs tied the game at 53 with two free throws.

Then Abbey Schreacke took over.

Schreacke made two free throws to take the lead, then hit a left-corner 3 off a long assist from Laniah Randle before adding a 3-pointer from the right wing off an assist from Nyah Wilson to jump start the Tiger offense and put Mizzou in front 61-56 with 5:18 left.

"Abbey Schreacke had some big shots for us in the fourth quarter, which was huge," Pingeton said.

Schreacke then faked a 3 to draw a leaping defender before finding Randle in the post for a wide-open layup to put the Tigers up 63-58.

Missouri extended as far as a 66-59 lead after Schreacke connected on a 3 from far past the right wing with 38 seconds left to play.

Schreake's fourth-quarter hot streak led the Tigers' late surge to win as she ended with 16 points on 4-of-9 attempts from 3, but it was Grace Slaughter who got the Tigers off to a hot start.

Slaughter connected on a layup then followed it with a transition 3 to put Mizzou up 14-6 with 4:35 left in the first quarter. She would end with seven first-quarter points on the way to a team-high 17, while recording a double-double with 10 rebounds.

"I think that's just been a goal that I really talked with my coaches about," Slaughter said. "Being a sophomore now, I think just trying to take a bigger role on the team in different areas and understanding that, to be a well-rounded player, you've got to do some other things and it's been exciting to just try to grow in those areas and keep trying to push myself to be a better player in other areas."

Judd poured in five first-quarter points as well as the Tigers hit 8-of-16 shots in the opening frame to take a 21-13 lead into the first break.

Neither team was able to get much going in the second quarter as the Tigers shot just 5-of-13 (38.5 percent) from the field and SMU shot just 6-of-16 (37.5 percent) to head into halftime.

The quarter was highlighted by a Slaughter defensive rebound which she passed ahead to Hannah Linthacum waiting in the post in transition for a layup to make it 25-18 Missouri with 7:34 left before the break.

"Slaughter obviously had a big night for us, double-double, it's good to see her have so many rebounds, that's another area that we continue to challenge her on, just being more physical, more aggressive," Pingeton said.

The Tigers extended to a seven-point lead two more times quickly on jumpers from Slaughter and Schreacke, but SMU was able to quickly cut the lead to three before Missouri took a 33-29 lead into halftime.

The Tigers came out of the break hot with Slaughter making two free throws, Wilson connecting on a jumper and Judd hitting a 3 to extend to a 40-31 lead with 7:59 left in the third.

Another Judd 3 made it 45-36 as she hit her first three attempts from beyond the arc, but Missouri was never able to make it a double-digit advantage and took the 52-44 lead into the fourth quarter.

"For Judd, playing with pace is so important, she's so explosive," Pingeton said. "She likes to play downhill. A lot of times, she's catching and trying to attack immediately, and you know, we just keep trying to get her to play with a little bit more pace.

Missouri shot 24-of-60 (40 percent) from the field, 9-of-25 (36 percent) from 3 and 11-of-17 (64.7 percent) from the free-throw line.

The Tigers outrebounded SMU 40-37, with a 13-9 rebounding advantage in the fourth quarter making the difference.

"I think the biggest stat of the game for me was in the second half, we only allowed three offensive rebounds, which is huge," Pingeton said. "We talk a lot about rebounding and the importance of it and I didn't feel like we did as good of a job as we needed to in that first half and really challenged them at halftime and I thought they responded really well."

Along with Slaughter at 17, Schreacke at 16 and Judd at 14, Wilson added 10 points to give the Tigers four players in double figures.

Missouri (8-3) will host Northern Illinois at 2 p.m. Saturday.

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