The long Tiger women’s basketball nightmare is over.
And it’s because of the right hand of Laniah Randle and the left hand of Grace Slaughter on Monday night at Mizzou Arena.
With Mississippi State leading 77-76 and leading scorer Jerkaila Jordan bringing the ball down the floor waiting for the end of the shot clock, Randle poked the ball away toward mid court, where Slaughter picked it up and took it down into the paint in transition.
Slaughter dribbled around, seemed to find nothing available, then dribbled to the baseline on the left side, where she turned and heaved up a left-handed floater that sank as the buzzer sounded to give the Missouri Tigers a 78-77 win against the Bulldogs, ending an 18-game losing streak against SEC opponents that had lasted since Jan. 18, 2024.
“My mindset just with getting the ball, was kind of our transition offense was going pretty well, so just kind of got out and ran and got a little too deep in the paint first,” Slaughter said. “So I was going to pull it out just to see what there was. … I heard the clock counting down and I was like, ‘It’s time to go.’ So yeah, just went to that left hand and thankfully, it went in.”
“It’s something I’m gonna remember forever,” Slaughter added. “And I think that was the immediate sign that shot did fall was the dog pile. It was super exciting”
Slaughter ended with a career-high 31 points to go with six rebounds as she shot 10-of-21 from the field, 3-of-9 from 3 and 8-of-8 at the free-throw line.
“We’ve been really challenging her to be more aggressive offensively and just hunting more shots,” Missouri coach Robin Pingeton said. “I think she’s a really unselfish player and doesn’t want to, she doesn’t want anyone to feel like she’s forcing the issue. But we need her to.”
The Bulldogs hit two free throws to pull ahead 77-73 with 1:38 left to play, but Abbey Schreacke, who had hit only one shot all day, nailed a 3-pointer from the right wing to bring the Tigers back within one and set up the final play.
“She’s just got a very steady personality as well,” Pingeton said of Schreacke. “... When she’s out there, she doesn’t get too high or too low. And I think she knows from a foot speed standpoint, she’s in over her head in the SEC, but she’s got to use her mind and change speed and got to play with different gears. And she’s pretty darn good at that, just high IQ and just got a beautiful shot.”
In the third quarter, it seemed the Tigers were going to suffer the same fate they had through the first six games of SEC play. After Slaughter hit a jumper to tie the game at 43 coming out of halftime, the Bulldogs went on a 10-2 run to jump ahead 53-44 with 6:08 left to play.
Through the first Tiger games in SEC play, a second-half run led to Missouri falling further and further behind as the team failed to mount a comeback.
But not Monday.
No, Monday the Tigers grabbed an offensive rebound that led to a Randle assist to Slaughter for a second-chance layup, then Randle made a jumper herself before Slaughter hit consecutive 3s to cut the lead to 55-54 with 4:04 left.
“In each of the first six games, there’s been runs that we just get deflated,” Pingeton said. “We weren’t putting together 40 minutes and we let a four-point game swing into an 11- or 12-point swing. Just our ability to fight, our fight back and ability to get stops was really important. ”
The Tigers fought back to tie at 58 when Randle hit a layup, two of her 14 points to complement four rebounds, four steals and a block. Then another Randle layup tied the game at 60.
A Madina Okot free throw sent the Bulldogs into the fourth quarter leading 61-60, but the Tigers had survived the run and given themselves a chance.
The fourth quarter saw five ties and five lead changes, with the final one coming as Slaughter finished the best game of her young career. But did Slaughter know at any point before the end that Monday belonged to her?
“Not really, to be honest,” Slaughter said. “I think I just try to go into each game with the same mindset and to just really have fun with it. We work so hard off the court, all of us do, so being able to just play relaxed and free when we get on the court, I think, is ideal.”
The game had 18 total ties and 20 lead changes as the teams got started early, tying at 2, 4, 7, 15 and 20 in the first quarter before two Ashton Judd free throws gave the Tigers a 22-20 lead going into the first break.
Judd ended with 14 points and a team-high eight rebounds.
“Judd’s leadership, just the way she shows up for this team, she leads us in so many different ways,” Pingeton said.
Jorden then hit a jumper to tie the game at 22 early in the second quarter, helping build the day that kept Slaughter from leading the game offensively. Jordan ended with 40 points on 13-of-21 shooting from the field, 5-of-9 from 3 and 9-of-17 from the free-throw line to go with eight rebounds and two steals.
An Averi Kroenke 3 put the Tigers in front 25-24, but the teams tied and swapped the lead back and fourth until a Slaughter jumper put Missouri up 37-33, its biggest lead of the day.
But Mississippi State took advantage of some Tiger mistakes to eventually take a 43-41 lead into halftime.
Missouri shot 25-of-59 (42.4 percent) from the field, 8-of-21 (38.1 percent) from 3 and 20-of-23 (87.0 percent) from the free-throw line.
Mississippi State outrebounded Missouri 41-34, including a 17-11 advantage on the offensive boards. But the Bulldogs only scored 15 second-chance points to Missouri’s 13.
The Bulldogs had 32 points in the paint to Missouri’s 26, a 13-6 advantage in fastbreak points and led for 22:03.
But the Tigers shot 87 percent from the free-throw line while the Bulldogs were 14-of-24 (58.3 percent) leaving the Tigers with the only advantage that mattered in the end.
Missouri (12-10, 1-6 SEC) will hit the road to face Texas at 8 p.m. Thursday.
Hear directly from Robin Pingeton, Grace Slaughter and Ashton Judd
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