The 2023-24 basketball season continues to heat up as Missouri women’s basketball looks to settle into a rhythm.
In their last four games, Missouri women’s basketball split the stretch 2-2. The Tigers’ two wins were against in-state opponents at home, while their losses occurred during both a road and neutral game against fellow Power Five opponents, Virginia and Kansas State.
Missouri’s most recent 84-56 loss to the Wildcats dropped them to 7-4 early in the season. Here is what we’ve learned so far about the 2023-24 season.
Home sweet home
The Tigers are currently 6-0 when they play at Mizzou Arena. In those games, they’ve outscored their opponents by an average score of 86.3 to 59.7.
By contrast, Missouri sits at 1-4 for games at either a road or neutral site. In home games, the Tigers’ defense has held opposing teams under 80 points, but has conceded that total three times away from Mizzou Arena.
When looking at their losses to Virginia and Kansas State, Missouri was outscored in the third quarter by more than 10 points. While the Tigers started off good, slow starts after halftime continuously sunk the team.
Roster reconstruction
Early in the game against Virginia, graduate student forward Angelique Ngalakulondi had been playing her best game yet, according to head coach Robin Pingeton. The transfer racked up 8 points and five rebounds in only 17 minutes.
Things began to take a turn when Ngalakulondi had to exit in the second quarter due to a wrist injury. While the Tigers led by 15 before her exit, Virginia battled back to win 87-81 in overtime. Ngalakulondi has been out of the lineup ever since, spending the last three games on the bench with a cast.
During her first two absences, Ngalakulondi was replaced by freshman forward Hannah Linthacum, who totaled 13 points and 12 rebounds in her two combined starts. Looking for a spark against Kansas State, Pingeton made the choice to swap Linthacum for graduate student forward Abby Feit. In her first start for Missouri, Feit recorded 13 points and a season-high eight rebounds.
Missouri still continues to struggle with rebounding, falling behind 48-33 to Kansas State in that category. The Tigers have been out-rebounded in four games this season, and they have lost three of them.
3-point triumph
A near constant over these last four games has been Missouri’s ability to win the 3-point battle. In three of their previous four games, the Tigers shot a higher number of threes with higher efficiency than their opponents. The only exception was the blowout loss to Kansas State, as Missouri shot 6-26 while the Wildcats narrowly beat them out on 8-33 shooting.
This barrage from behind the arc has been a teamwide effort. Five players have recorded more than 10 threes this year, with three players making 20 or more.
Graduate student forward Hayley Frank leads the team with a total of 24 3-pointers, while freshman guard Abbey Schreacke leads efficiency with 47.7% on an average of four attempts per game.
It would be remiss not to mention sophomore guard Ashton Judd, who made 4-8 of her triples during her 20-point night against Missouri State. While Judd’s 3-point shooting has been a blessing in wins, it has been a curse in losses. In Missouri’s four losses, the sophomore has gone 5-18 and left potential points on the table.
Judd and the rest of the Tigers hope to break these trends as they play for the first time in a week on the road against Illinois on Sunday, Dec. 17, at 3 p.m.
Edited by Chase Gemes | cgemes@themaneater.com
Copy Edited by Briana Iordan