Missouri women’s basketball took an early bite at the SEC’s biggest dog, but the Gamecocks were far too much for the Tigers to chew.
Mizzou lost to No. 2-ranked South Carolina 83-52 on Thursday evening at Mizzou Arena in Columbia, Missouri, kicking off SEC play with an expected defeat to the reigning national champions as the Gamecocks steamrolled the Tigers in the second half.
South Carolina outscored Mizzou by 21 points after halftime.
“I thought we competed,” Missouri coach Robin Pingeton said postgame. “I think late in the second quarter it was a two-point game. I think late in the third it was an 11-point game. But that’s the thing about South Carolina. They just need a little window. And, you know, all of a sudden, an 11-point game is a 16-point game, and then it turns into a 24-point game, and they just go on runs. I thought our players did a nice job just staying the course.”
There were encouraging moments for Missouri.
Down 10 as the Gamecocks cruised to the free-throw line, Ashton Judd, who finished with a team-high 15 points and six rebounds, cut the USC defense open with a reverse pass from the top of the key as Grace Slaughter cut from the corner across the baseline, and Slaughter tucked away the layup to slim the deficit to eight points. The Tigers almost exactly recreated the play a couple possessions later.
Slaughter capped a personal 6-0 run on the back of a Laniah Randle assist, then Judd drove to the basket and fed in a layup for an 8-0 MU run to make it a once-score game. The Tigers, suddenly, trailed by just two.
There were encouraging moments, but that was all they were.
If you come at the reigning national champions … you better not miss.
Like Pingeton said, the Gamecocks didn’t need too many windows of opportunity to pull away.
The Tigers turned the ball over on travels twice in the following two minutes. Sophomore guard Abbey Schreacke took a highly contested, heave-and-hope 3-pointer that rattled out harmlessly. Tilda Sjokvist took a layup that went high and fell well wide.
And South Carolina had answers on offense, going on an 11-3 run to close the half and restoring a 10-point lead.
The Tigers (11-5, 0-1 SEC) were doing enough on the defensive end in the first half to keep within touching distance, guarding the inside well enough to force the Gamecocks into shots from the outside, where they went 2-of-8 in the first half.
But this is South Carolina, the reigning national champions with just one loss since the beginning of the 2023-24 campaign.
The Gamecocks (13-1, 1-0) lived at the free throw line on their biggest runs, getting MU guard Laniah Randle to foul out early in the third quarter and standout forward Angelique Ngalakulondi into foul trouble over the same timespan, later fouling out in the fourth quarter. USC took 32 free throws, which nearly tripled up on MU’s trips to the line.
“We went into the game knowing that we were gonna have to take care of the ball and be physical, but also draw that line between being physical and not fouling,” Judd said. “And, you know, it hurt us in the long run. I think we gave them around 30 throws. … That shot us out of the game.”
Coach Dawn Staley’s team figured out ways to get paint touches in the second half, scoring 12 in the third quarter alone. Star guard Te-Hina Paopao made a pair of early second-half 3s, and MiLaysia Fulwiley took over with 14 second-half points to finish with a game-high 17. Ashlyn Watkins came off the bench and had an 11-point, 11-rebound double-double.
South Carolina’s lead grew and grew, closing the third quarter on an 11-0 run and opening the fourth quarter with six straight points. Mizzou scored just 14 points in the opening 13 minutes of the second half.
The difference in depth was telling. South Carolina outscored Mizzou 57-16 from the bench. The Gamecocks alsooutscored Mizzou 13-2 on fast breaks, and 19-3 on second-chance opportunities.
Mizzou has a difficult path ahead of it in SEC play. The loss to South Carolina was the Tigers’ fifth of the season, and by far their best. The others came against Oral Roberts, Norfolk State, Vermont and Syracuse.
Missouri needed perfection against South Carolina, and instead it got first-half flashes. The Tigers needed consistency, and they got streaky.
The rest of SEC play awaits, and while the opponents theoretically get easier than Staley’s national-title frontrunners, the competition never gets easy. If MU has an answer, it needs to find it fast.
“I think we have the pieces for sure,” Pingeton said. … “But, bottom line is we can’t get foul trouble the way we did. I mean, we had (Ngalakulondi) and Hannah (Linthacum) both pick up two fouls in that first half, and then (Tionna Herron) pulled her hamstring, and so she was a no go for the rest of the game, so that put us in some tough rotations. But do I think we have the personnel and the depth (for) the league? There is no doubt in my mind.”
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Missouri women’s basketball score: MU drops SEC opener to South Carolina
