One day after Missouri women’s basketball coach Robin Pingeton announced she would step down at the end of the season, the Tigers got her win No. 250 with Missouri, bringing her record since taking the reigns in Columbia to 250-216 with one regular-season game left.
Laniah Randle poked away an inbounds pass and stormed down the floor for a layup as the clock ticked down to give the Tigers a 75-73 win at Arkansas on Thursday.
Randle ended with 20 points and nine rebounds to go with three assists and two blocks to lead the Tigers, while Grace Slaughter had 13 points and eight rebounds. Tilda Sjokvist added a season-high 13 points, while De’Myla Brown added 10 points.
Averi Kroenke dished out five assists to go with three rebounds, while Ashton Judd had five rebounds and four assists.
Missouri went into the fourth quarter down just 49-48, but an early 3-pointer from Jenna Lawrence extended the Razorback advantage to 52-48 with 9:51 left to play.
Randle hit a layup, then Judd dished an assist to Hannah Linthacum for a layup with 9:01 left to tie the game at 52, then two Randle free throws put the Tigers in front with 8:22 left.
The fourth quarter would see four lead changes and six ties, including after a Judd free throw with 7 seconds left put the game at 73-all and led to the Randle steal-turned layup.
Missouri took an early lead in the first quarter, but was never able to build more than a five-point advantage before an 11-2 Razorback run gave Arkansas the lead, which it built into a 21-20 advantage going into the second quarter
Arkansas led throughout the second quarter, leading by as much as 32-24 with 3:02 left before halftime, before taking a 35-31 lead into the break after Sjokvist hit a buzzer-beating jumper.
The third quarter, which has plagued the Tigers for so much of the season, was a back-and-forth affair, with four ties and two lead changes.
A Randle jumper tied the game at 35, then a Brown 3 made it 41-41 before a Sjokvist 3 put the Tigers up 44-41 with 1:53 left in the quarter.
After Arkansas tied the game at 44 and 46, former Tiger Izzy Higginbottom hit a free throw to put the Razorbacks in front 47-46 with 1:17 left, then a Brown jumper gave the Tigers a one-point lead and a Higginbottom layup made it 49-48 Arkansas heading to the fourth.
Higginbottom led Arkansas with 32 points, nine rebounds and five assists. She alone shot 11-of-27 overall and 10-of-11 at the free-throw line, but missed all five 3-pointers she attempted.
Missouri shot 26-of-66 (39.4 percent) from the field, 8-of-26 (32 percent) from beyond the arc and 15-of-20 (75 percent) from the free-throw line.
The Tigers won the rebounding battle 46-38, had 17 second-chance points to Arkansas’ 11 and won the battle for points off turnovers 9-6.
The game had 15 total ties and 14 lead changes.
Missouri (14-16, 3-12) which moved up to 10th in the SEC standings with the win, will return to Mizzou Arena to finish the regular season, and Pingeton’s 15th season of games in Columbia, with a matchup against Vanderbilt at 2 p.m. Sunday.
Stay up to date on all the Mizzou news with your premium subscription.
Talk about this story in the story thread and discuss so much more in The Tiger Walk.
Make sure you're caught up on all the Tiger news and headlines.
