Mizzou suffers home letdown to Tennessee, 62-60
February 18, 2019 | Sports,
By: Caleb Lewis
Mizzou women’s basketball came into Sunday’s game against Tennessee riding high.
The team was on a three-game winning streak. On top of that, the Tigers are coming home off a historic win against No. 5 Mississippi State at in Starkville.
Their opponents, the Tennessee Lady Volunteers, were coming off a win against Auburn at home. Both teams had winning momentum on their side, but the Tigers had a bigger win and the home court advantage for this match up.
It was a great atmosphere- over 8,000 were in attendance Mizzou Arena the “Play 4 Kay” pink out game. It approached the program record of 10,000+ in attendance for the same game last year, when Missouri pulled the home upset over the Lady Vols.
Mizzou scored the first points of the game, but Tennessee was able to the answer right back and was able to pull away with the lead. Half way through the first quarter, Mizzou called their first timeout to stop the potential blowout. Tennessee still led but the Tigers made the game close only trailing by one. Three-pointers were few and far in between for both teams.
A close game in the first quarter turned into a defensive second quarter, both teams going through scoring droughts. Mizzou’s drought lasted two and a half minutes before the scored.
Both teams would struggle to score points in the remainder of the half. Tennessee would go on another two and a half minutes, while Mizzou’s went for three minutes and forty-two seconds. Mizzou was able to get the lead from two free throws by Akira Levy with 0.7 seconds left on the first-half clock.
Coming out of the first half, it was more back and forth scoring between the two. Around three minutes into the second Tennessee started to pull away with a 6-0 run. This time the timeout didn’t help the Tigers, as they would go on a two minutes and eleven seconds scoring drought until a media timeout with 4:25 left on the clock. Missouri regained control, and led by one headed into the fourth.
It was more back and forth action at the start of the fourth. Missouri clung to a one-point lead at the start.
Late in the fourth, Tennessee received have some help from the officials when Evina Westbrook and the Lady Vols got away with a clear kicked ball. With 1:27 left on the clock, Mizzou was going to need a last-minute shot to win this game and continue their winning streak.
Both teams would fight hard and to beat the other, and it came down to a last second three-point attempt by Mizzou to win the game, but it wouldn’t have counted anyway- Jordan Chavis’ halfcourt heave was late. Tennessee won by a final 62 to 60.
Top scorers for Tennessee were Evina Westbrook with 18 points and Rennia Davis with 16 points. Top scorers for Mizzou were Amber Smith with 14 points. Sophie Cunningham and Cierra Porter both had 13 points.
Edited by Garrett Jones | @gcjh23@mail.missouri