The Missouri women’s basketball team improved to 8-1 on the season with a 74-51 win over the Evansville Aces on Monday at Mizzou Arena.
The senior forward duo of Christine Flores and BreAnna Brock once again led in scoring. Each scored 25 points on the night, leading the Tigers to dominate in the paint with 38 points compared to the Aces’ 10.
Freshman guard Morgan Eye added 12 points from behind the arc, continuing to emerge as the Tigers best outside threat.
Flores said the consistent post play continues to provide opportunities for Eye.
“When you have two post players that can consistently play well and play together, it opens up three-point shots for one of the best three-point shooters in the nation,” Flores said, referring to Eye. “We need three-point shots, and when we can play consistently inside it is going to open up those shots.”
While the Tigers lacked balanced scoring, they did have 19 assists on 28 made field goals.
“I think that speaks volumes about the unselfishness of our team,” coach Robin Pingeton said.
Senior guard Sydney Crafton was added to the lineup Monday, replacing fellow senior guard Bailey Gee. Pingeton has repeatedly said while Crafton is one of the Tigers more talented players, she has lacked the consistent effort Pingeton expects from her players.
“Bailey does a tremendous job from a leadership position and she gets it and she is a great teammate, but we thought we could get more production on the boards and offensively than we are getting,” Pingeton said. “We felt it was time to make that adjustment and we just needed to get Sydney to play the way she can.”
The Tigers have two nonconference games left before they head to No. 1 Baylor on Jan. 4 to open Big 12 Conference play.
Pingeton’s focus is on getting the team to consistently play well for 40 minutes.
“We talked about it in the locker room: 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 35 minutes is not going to be enough from here on out,” Pingeton said.
Missouri will host Memphis on Thursday at Mizzou Arena.