The Missouri Tigers women’s basketball team started off their 2023-2024 campaign by hosting the Belmont Bruins at Missouri Arena for a Monday morning matinee. The Bruins, coming off a share of the Missouri Valley Conference regular season championship, looked to prove they could compete with a Power 5 school in Missouri. However, Missouri came away victorious 72-61 to move to 1-0 on the young season.
Excitement pulsed through Missouri Arena from the thousands of local Columbia Public School students who came for a field trip. They flooded the student section, waved pom-poms and cheered chants of MIZ-ZOU all game long.
Early on, sloppiness defined the game for both teams. Missouri’s first points were dropped in from the line by Angelique Ngalakulondi, but neither team could get into any sort of rhythm from the field. After an Abby Feit triple, Missouri went cold and started the game shooting 2-13 from the floor. The Bruins were not any better, shooting 20% from the field in the opening quarter.
The Tigers first 18 points were all scored by newcomers to the team, either freshmen or transfers. Freshman guard Grace Slaughter looked right at home, and she figures to be a big part of the team moving forward. She ended up playing 39 minutes, the most of any Tiger.
While the offenses looked shaky, both teams played strong defense. Missouri forced three offensive fouls against Belmont in the first half, and the Tigers constantly pestered Bruins ball handlers. Normally steady Tuti Jones ended the game with seven turnovers, seemingly flustered by the Tigers’ pressure, especially from Mama Dembele.
Every time Missouri went on a run, Belmont answered. In the end of the first half, Dembele dished a pocket pass in the lane for a Hannah Linthacum layup to go up 18-12. Belmont junior forward Tessa Miller hit her first three shots of the game for Belmont, and Blair Schoenwald hit a corner shot to cut Missouri ’s lead to three.
Both schools traded buckets to end the half, and Missouri took a 30-27 lead going into the half. Dembele, Slaughter, and Hayley Frank each scored six apiece in the first half. Poor three point shooting allowed Belmont to hang around, however. Missouri shot 2 of 13 from downtown, an area of the game which the Tigers thrived in last year.
Missouri did get themselves into foul trouble during the first half, with four Tigers picking up at least two personals. This led to the Tigers playing a little more zone defense in the second half, noted by head coach Robin Pingeton in the postgame presser.
After Tessa Miller backed down Linthacum for the first bucket of the second half, Missouri took control with a 9-0 scoring run. This run was made possible by Missouri getting out in transition and opportunities at the hoop opening up. Dembele was the spark the Tigers needed, grabbing two steals on the defensive end and setting up Hayley Frank twice on offense. Frank hit a midrange jumper and then a catch-and-shoot three from the left wing, what Missouri fans have grown accustomed to seeing out of her. Dembele assisted Linthacum one more time to grow the lead to 39-30 before Belmont coach Bart Brooks was forced to call a timeout to stop the bleeding.
This timeout didn’t do too much to cool off the Tigers. Dembele was again active on defense, stepping into a passing lane and taking it coast-to-coast to extend Missouri ’s lead to 12. The largest lead of the game was 14 points, after Ashton Judd was able to get her first basket of the year. Judd struggled in the first half, missing her first seven shots, but. she managed to turn her day around after that, making her last four.
Belmont was able to hang around during the fourth quarter, when Jailyn Banks finally started to come to life. The freshman was 1-11 from the floor in the first half, but she was an energizer bunny in the late stages of the game. She hit a three, a middie and a running left-hand layup to bring the Bruins to within eight with seven minutes to play in the game. Missouri couldn’t stay in front of her with all that speed, and Banks finished with 17 points on the day.
Poor free-throw shooting from Belmont allowed Missouri to retain control throughout the whole second half. The Bruins shot 12/20 from the line, compared to 17/21 for the Tigers.
The game was essentially put on ice with just over two minutes to play. Judd caught a pass on the left wing, and drove hard to the middle of the paint. She then muscled up a right-hand layup, got fouled, and dropped in the basket to extend the lead to 65-56. After hitting the free throw, Missouri was able to wind down the clock, hitting free throws to wrap things up and complete the all-around win.
Three point shooting was an issue throughout the game, and Missouri finished 3-17 from the line. Coach Pingeton isn’t too worried about that moving forward, however.
“We’ll be just fine. We’ve put in so much work outside of practice. I’ve got a lot of confidence in it,” Pingeton said.
One area the Tigers excelled in was forcing turnovers and mistakes by Belmont. Missouri forced 16 turnovers, and the constant deflections and ball pressure made it difficult for the Bruins to get quality shots up. The defensive tenacity was especially evident at the start of each of the two halves.
The Tigers will look to start a winning streak on Thursday against Indiana State, at Missouri Arena, while Belmont goes home to play Georgia on Friday.