The Missouri women’s basketball team suffered its first loss of the season to the Northwestern Wildcats on Saturday by a score of 74-70 at Mizzou Arena as part of the Big Ten/Big 12 Challenge.

Throughout the game the Tigers appeared to have control over their opponents, with multiple seven- and eight-point leads, but were never able to gain a large enough lead to finally put the Wildcats away.

The first half played out similar to the five previous games, with the Tigers offense unable to score many points. But the defense held the opponents to very little success, allowing 37 percent shooting for Northwestern.

A jump shot from guard Karly Roser in the final minute brought the Wildcats within one-point going into the half.

The second half appeared to belong to the Tigers as senior forward Christine Flores and senior center BreAnna Brock combined for a total of 47 points by the end of the game.

Even though Northwestern grabbed an early lead at the start of the half, the Tigers took the lead back thanks to a pair of three-pointers from junior guard Liene Priede.

The Tigers would maintain their lead up until Northwestern guard Morgan Jones hit a jump shot with just over two minutes remaining, putting the Wildcats ahead 62-61. Jones’ jump was part of an 11 unanswered point streak that wouldn’t be stopped until the final minute of the game with a layup from Brock, but the Tigers were still down 66-63.

With 50 seconds left Flores fouled out, and the offense was unable to take back the lead due to Northwestern center Dannielle Diamant going a perfect 8-of-8 on free throws in the final minute. The Tigers would lose with the final score of 74-70.

“We were aware of it,” Flores said of Diamant’s ability to hit free throws. “Honestly, we broke down and didn’t guard her the right way.”

Coach Robin Pingeton said the loss came from lack of discipline.

“It’s a game of runs and they ended up with the last one.” Pingeton said. “There were some possessions where I thought we looked really good, but its just that the breakdown was unacceptable.”

Flores said that she and her team would take this loss as a learning experience.

“The biggest was that the mental breakdowns and little things really do matter,” Flores said. “We just have to come tighter, talk more, and I think we’ll get it down.”

The Tigers will play their fourth game in the current home series, hosting Eastern Illinois on Wednesday, Dec. 7th.