Entering Thursday night, Missouri women’s basketball had lost eight of their last nine games, tumbling out of the NCAA Tournament picture in the process. After a 13-point victory over Mississippi State, Missouri head coach Robin Pingeton wasted no time after the game expressing an understandable sense of needed joy, especially after a 28-point blowout loss at the hands of Arkansas that saw the Tigers put up a season-low 33 points. 

“Not gonna lie, that one feels good,” Pingeton said. “When I talked about not recognizing the team at Arkansas, this looked like the team that I’m used to. The resiliency, the grittiness, the support into each other. I thought that was huge.”

The game wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows for Missouri, however, as the first quarter was dominated by Mississippi State. The Bulldogs opened the game on a 9-0 run, as the Tigers didn’t convert their first field goal of the game until the 6:26 mark in the first quarter. Missouri shot just 5/16 from the field and got outrebounded 14-7. MSU led 16-10 after 10 minutes of action. 

Missouri turned things around in the second quarter on both ends of the floor. On offense, the Tigers were moving around with purpose and passing the ball far more effectively. Defensively, Missouri’s zone defense continued creating opportunities in transition, as the Tigers forced five Bulldog turnovers and finished the half with 11 points off of turnovers. Missouri outscored MSU 22-12 in the second frame en route to a 34-28 halftime lead. 

Missouri came out of the halftime break firing and inspiring from downtown. The Tigers shot 5/6 from three in the third quarter, with Lauren Hansen and Ashton Judd canning two triples each. The fourth quarter saw more of the same, as Missouri kept up the steady shooting en route to a 75-62 victory. 

“The resiliency, the grittiness, the toughness, the flow of our offense, the ball movement. All of that was so much better [after the first quarter],” Pingeton said. “It felt like we were one heartbeat out there.”

Hayley Frank led the Tigers in scoring with 22, Hansen finished with 20, and Judd registered a career-high 17 points. Missouri finished 11/20 (55%) from downtown; the Tigers hadn’t shot that well from three in 725 days, when they made 64.3% of their long-range attempts in a 96-point explosion against Florida. After going 3/9 from three in the first half, Missouri lit the nets on fire in the second half, shooting 8/11 from downtown in the final 20 minutes.

“We didn’t start off hot unlike some of our other games, but we were really encouraging each other,” Hansen said. “So when we got those open looks, or we had the opportunity to kick it out, we felt comfortable doing that. We felt like our teammates were going to knock it down.”

It was a milestone night for Hansen, as the senior from Long Island, NY crossed the 1,000 career point threshold. 

“I’m so happy for her,” Pingeton said. “She’s continued to show up and fight the good fight and has continued to pour into her teammates. I’m not a bit surprised she’s reached 1,000.”

The Tigers were also feasting on defense, as their aggressive 3-2 zone defense helped force 20 Bulldog turnovers. Missouri only committed 10 themselves. This was interesting considering where both teams stood prior to Thursday night in regards to forcing turnovers. The Bulldogs averaged 18.44 forced turnovers per game (64th), while the Tigers averaged just 15.24 per game (223rd). 

The difference between 64th and 223rd is quite large. For perspective, the difference between the player with the 64th most home runs in MLB history (Johnny Bench) and the 223rd (Chase Utley) is 130 homers. The difference between the 2023 population of the 64th most populous city in the world (Singapore, Singapore) and the 223rd (Visakhapatnam, India) is approximately 3.75 million people. The difference between the net worth of the 64th richest person in the world (Vladimir Lisin, $23.3 billion) and the 223rd (George Roberts, $8.8 billion) is approximately $14.5 billion dollars. 

While the difference between 18.44 and 15.24 might not seem like a lot on the surface, here’s a stat that has a more impactful effect: Mississippi State had forced 63 more turnovers in one fewer game than Missouri entering Thursday. If either team were to force 20 turnovers in a game, it would’ve likely been the Bulldogs. 

Despite the sizable gap in turnover forcing, the Tigers blitzed the Bulldogs all night long, as every Mississippi State player who played at least seven minutes committed a turnover. Pingeton attributed the defensive (and overall) success to having a positive mentality for Missouri’s rebound after a sluggish first quarter. 

“The biggest battle we had tonight was within our own heads,” Pingeton said. “We were able to win that battle from within.”

All in all, this was a much-needed win for the Tigers and a huge loss for the Bulldogs, who’ve been living in the NCAA Tournament bubble as of late. Missouri will travel to College Station to battle Texas A&M on Monday at 6 p.m., while Mississippi State will host Alabama in their next game on Sunday at 4:35 p.m.