Tigers end skid, trounce SLU
It's been a rough week at Mizzou Arena.
On the same court on which Missouri men’s basketball was stunningly upset by Charleston Southern on Tuesday and only a few hundred feet away from room where Jim Sterk spoke on the firing of Barry Odom last Saturday, Missouri women’s basketball bounced back in the midst of its own struggles Thursday night, toppling Saint Louis (6-3) 83-68 at Mizzou Arena.
The Tigers, off to their worst start in program history, returned home from Cancun and ended a two-game skid in style, leading from start to finish in the 15-point victory over their in-state rivals from the Atlantic 10 to improve to 3-6 on the season. Aijha Blackwell set the pace for the Tigers with 17 points and 16 rebounds while fellow freshman Hayley Frank trailed close behind with 16 points on 3-5 shooting from three-point range. Veteran guards Amber Smith and Jordan Chavis each contributed 14 points of their own. Saint Louis guard Ciaja Harbison led the Billikens with 19 points.
After a pair of losses to New Mexico and North Carolina over Thanksgiving and an ensuing week spent piecing a disastrous start to the season back together with “intense” and “emotional” team meetings neither Robin Pingeton nor her players would go into detail on, the Tigers picked up a much needed win over a difficult opponent, and maybe — just maybe — got their season back on track Thursday.
“It’s been a tough month in November,” Pingeton said. “We’ve hit some speed bumps and some challenging times. Some tough days and hard team talks. For them to stay the course the way we have. We’ve really come together and got a really good win tonight."
Blackwell had the Tigers offense rolling immediately, snagging the opening tip and finishing a breakaway lay up to get Missouri on the board. The freshman guard powered Missouri’s offense in the early minutes and together with Smith, who poured in 10 first quarter points, combined for 16 of the Tigers’ 22 first quarter points. Frank’s 3-pointer in the dying seconds of the quarter off a pass from redshirt senior Hannah Schuchts put Missouri ahead of the Billikens 22-12.
Plagued by slow starts in most of its losses, Missouri came out with an energy that has largely been missing in the early going this season against Saint Louis. Eight of the Tigers’ first quarter field goals were assisted as the offense looked more fluid than in games past, and Missouri hung with the Billkens on the defensive end up against Saint Louis forwards Kendra Wilken and Brooke Flowers.
Unlike in many opening quarters this fall, Missouri was humming Thursday and it showed.
“We were finally making the extra passes,” Blackwell said. “When we make the extra pass, it ends in a bucket. That’s what worked for us tonight. We just kept it going.”
“We had a lot of intentional screening action,” Frank said. “We were screening to score and making that extra pass and getting good looks for ourselves.”
The Tigers maintained that intensity and opened the game up in the second quarter, leading by as many as 21 points in the period. This time it was Chavis who picked up the slack for Missouri’s offense. The junior guard nailed a 3-pointer less than 30 seconds into the second period to put the Tigers ahead 25-12. Minutes later, after Blackwell found Frank for a bucket under the basket with a pinpoint pass from the top of the key, Chavis struck again for another 3-pointer as part of a 15 run that ballooned Missouri’s lead to 44-23. Chavis’ nine second quarter points helped the Tigers break things open and sent them to the locker room up 44-27 after Saint Louis’ Ciaja Harbinson led the Billikens on a brief run before half.
A key difference for Missouri Thursday was its ability to contain the pair of forwards the Billikens featured in their rotation. A contributor to the Tigers’ early season struggles has been their struggles defending and competing with opposing bigs boards, allowing opponents 37.9 rebounds per game entering Thursday. On a night when Missouri held the Billikens to their second lowest point total of the season, the Tigers clamped down in the paint, holding Wilkin and Flowers — who stand at 6-foot-2 and 6-foot-5, respectively — in check. Deploying forwards Schuchts, Frank and Brittany Garner in the paint, as well as taller guards such as Smith and Blackwell, Mizzou limited Saint Louis’ bigs to a combined nine points on 30% shooting. And while the Tigers were outrebounded 38-30 on the night, Missouri’s defense and rebounding against taller forwards looked as good as it has all season.
“We’ve talked a lot the last few days about having a dog-like mentality and having the toughness and grittiness that you have to play with night in and night out.” Pingeton said. “Not just on a possession or two, here and there, but to sustain it.”
The Tigers picked up where they left after the break and opened the third quarter with a 15-6 run. Just as she did after the opening tip, Blackwell took control of the offense and added seven points to her total over the first 3:04 of the second half before Shuchts brought the Mizzou Arena crowd to its feet and forced a Saint Louis timeout with back-to-back 3-pointers, putting Missouri up 59-33. She finished the night with eight points and five rebounds.
Frank, who scored seven of her 16 points in the third quarter, drained a 3-pointer just before the buzzer to send the Tigers into the final period ahead 68-39, quelling any and all questions over which side would come away with the win.
Redshirt sophomore guard Haily Troup exited in the third quarter after she appeared to take a hit to the head. Pingeton did not have an update following the game, but said Troup had been available to return to action if needed.Missouri took its foot off the pedal early in the final frame and allowed Harbison to power a 6-0 Saint Louis run, but the Tigers wouldn't idle much longer. Frank responded by scoring her final points of the night with a deep 3-pointer to push the lead to 73-46 and just as the crowd began to doze, junior Elle Brown renewed their attention with a contested finish at the rim before sinking the free-throw. The rousing finish was a fitting end to a big night at Mizzou Arena.
After the buzzer sounded, Pingeton took the opportunity to address the fans who had remained for the entirety of the blowout win. With a microphone in hand, Missouri’s 10th year head coach apologized and expressed her appreciation for their support in the face of such an underwhelming start to the season, and before she finished promised one thing: it’s all upward from here for the Tigers.
“There’s nothing like Mizzou Arena,” Pingeton said of the moment during her postgame press conference. “This has been a special place and our fanbase has not wavered, not one time. I think for them to be able to come out again and again when things aren’t going the best for us, showing their support means the world.”
On Thursday, against a 6-2 Billikens team that arrived in Columbia winners of three of their last four games, Missouri returned to its winning ways and if Pingeton and her players are to be believed, set the tone for the rest of their season in the process.
The Tigers return to the court at 2 p.m. Sunday on the road at UMKC.