Mizzou women stay unbeaten behind Blackwell's double-double
A few minutes into Thursday’s contest with SIU-Edwardsville, it looked like the Missouri women's basketball team wouldn't be able to break the Cougars' full-court press. The Tigers turned the ball over six times in the first quarter and looked discombobulated playing against a defensive style they hadn’t seen so far this season.
Eventually, the Tigers were able to break down the defense. Missouri took advantage of the chances they got in the first half — making 20 of 30 field goal — to take a 17-point lead into the locker room. It never looked back, cruising to a 79-46 win to take the program to an undefeated 8-0 — its best start since the 2015-16 season, in which it won its first 13 contests.
“It’s a good feeling, in a roundabout way, that you can be so frustrated with a 30-point win,” head coach Robin Pingeton said.
Star junior Aijha Blackwell was a rebound away from a first-half double-double. She led the way with 16 points and 15 rebounds.
“Aijha, in that first half, was key for us,” Pingeton said. “I just think she showcased a little bit more [of] her skillset in regards to really being able to break that pressure.”
Blackwell has been a walking double-double all season. She’s recorded one in all but two games so far.
“[I’ve had] a hunger for the ball,” Blackwell said. “[I’ve been] hungry and resilient to go get the boards.”
Mama Dembele flirted with a double-double of her own. The sophomore recorded six first-half assists to go along with seven points, and finished a point and two boards shy of a 10-10 night. Her assist numbers have been on the rise this season. There’s a simple reason for it.
“Teammates [are] making shots,” Pingeton said. “You got a handful of kids that are shooting at a pretty high percentage. And that’s a young lady that understands what her job is and what we need her to do.”
Missouri's big lead allowed Pingeton to go to her bench earlier and more often than usual. Jayla Kelly and Skylah Travis got minutes, and every Tiger that saw the floor scored at least a point.
“Absolutely love it,” Pingeton said. “I wanna play all of them. But it’s gotta be ‘mission first.’ They all wanna play but they understand ‘mission first’ and so when they have an opportunity I think that’s huge. I think it’s gonna build more confidence for them [to] have that game experience.”
The Tigers play No. 5 Baylor next, the first true challenge for Pingeton’s squad. But they've already knocked off three teams that made the tournament last year, so it would be unfair to call the 8-0 record a fluke. As Pingeton indicated, Missouri is shooting lights-out: 48 percent on the season heading into Thursday and 56 percent against SIUE. Another efficient shooting night and a low turnover count will be the keys to running with Baylor in Waco on Saturday.
“It’s gonna be a battle,” Blackwell said. “We know it’s gonna be a battle for 40 minutes. I think it’s best that we prepare well, watch film and do what we gotta do to walk into that battle ready.”
The Tigers are beating the teams they should beat. But now begins a tougher stretch of the schedule. After facing Baylor, the team will head to Springfield to take on Missouri State before a couple winnable games against Alabama A&M and Southern Illinois round out non-conference play. Missouri then faces its toughest test of the season at home against No. 1 South Carolina.
Simply put, the next two to three weeks will test the Tigers. By then we’ll know just how good this team is.
It’s also telling that Pingeton wasn’t satisfied with Thursday's performance, despite her team winning by 30 points. The fact that Missouri isn’t content with a blowout win because of a high turnover count and because of a hard time getting going against a new defense shows the standard this program has set itself for this season.
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