Missouri headed into their Sunday afternoon matchup with the No. 18 Tennessee Volunteers searching for their second SEC win. The Tigers were coming off of a nine point loss at No. 5 Texas, while the Vols looked to rebound from their loss against No. 2 South Carolina. Both teams sat under .500 in SEC play heading into the game.
The Tigers offense was off to an extremely hot start, scoring seven unanswered points in the opening possessions of the game. Missouri would continue their offensive onslaught, leading by 12 with five minutes left in the first quarter. This scoring would come behind the efforts of Ashton Judd, De’Myla Brown, and Grace Slaughter, who would end the game with a respective 13, 18, and 16 points.
“They’ve really started to find themselves,” Missouri head coach Robin Pingeton said.
Despite the Tigers early offensive prowess, Missouri continued to shoot themselves in the foot with turnover struggles. The Volunteers stayed in a full court press for nearly the whole game, and the Tigers seemed unable to figure out the Tennessee defense. Missouri had 12 first half turnovers, most of which came off of five second violations. The Tigers continuously found trouble inbounding the ball, resulting in many stolen passes by the Vols. Although Missouri struggled to move the ball in the first half, they still found themselves tied at 33 at the end of the 1st half. When asked about the Tennessee defense forcing so many turnovers, Pingeton said, “That’s what they do.” The Volunteers defense was led by Talaysia Cooper, who had multiple steals that resulted in fastbreak points for Tennessee.
In addition to the Tigers turnover mishaps, Missouri also failed to convert at the Free Throw line. With 1:09 left in the 4th Quarter, Angelique Ngalakulondi drew a key foul down six. The Volunteers then received two technical fouls after the call, giving the Tigers an opportunity to score 4 points, and make it a two point game. Ngalakulondi missed both of her free throws, and Grace Slaughter went one-for-two on the technical foul shots, seemingly wasting a golden opportunity for the Tigers to mount a comeback.
Despite their slow start, the Vols offense was able to erase a 12-point deficit and head into halftime tied with the Tigers. Tennessee’s scoring on this run came from a very familiar figure in Talaysia Cooper. Cooper scored 14 first half points for the Vols, equating to nearly half of Tennessee’s first half total of 33. Cooper came into this matchup averaging 17.5 points, and was able to improve her season average, by scoring 27.
Although the Tigers could not find a desirable outcome, there is still much to build on from this performance from Missouri. The Tigers, who started out SEC play on a 6 game losing streak, have progressed in the last few games, in which they beat Mississippi State on a buzzer beater from Grace Slaughter, and lost to No. 5 Texas by a mere margin of nine points. The Tigers have also seen bright spots from many of their young players including Grace Slaughter who leads Missouri in scoring, and Ashton Judd who grabbed six boards in today’s loss.
Tennessee now sits at one game away from .500 in SEC play, however the Volunteers have an extremely tough slate of games ahead of them. The Volunteers will host the No. 6 Uconn Huskies, and then travel to Baton Rouge where they will take on the No. 7 LSU Tigers.
As for Missouri, the Tigers will continue to build off this loss as they continue SEC play against No. 7 LSU on Feb. 6. Missouri will then take on three more ranked opponents before their season comes to an end, finishing up a vigorous conference schedule for the Tigers this season.