The Missouri women’s basketball team couldn’t continue its recent winning ways Tuesday, falling 75-62 to the Texas Longhorns in the team’s home finale.
The Tigers (12-16, 2-15 Big 12 Conference) had won two of their last three after dropping their first 13 league contests. The Longhorns (17-12, 7-10 Big 12) picked up an important road win in their quest for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Senior forward BreAnna Brock shined in her final game at Mizzou Arena, putting up 24 points and 16 rebounds. Brock recorded a double-double in the first half alone.
“The emotion (of senior night) really showed in her play and her fight and her toughness,” coach Robin Pingeton said.
Brock’s inside mate, senior forward Christine Flores, has teamed up with Brock to lead the Tigers in many games this season. But on senior night, Flores had her worst scoring output of the year. Flores went 0-for-13 from the floor and finished the night with just one point and seven rebounds.
Pingeton said the two seniors showed two ends of the spectrum in regards to the emotions of senior night.
“Unfortunately, I think (Flores) just got caught up in the emotion and didn’t play at the level Christine Flores is playing at,” Pingeton said.
Flores had no answer for her sub-par performance.
“I don’t know what it was,” Flores said. “It’s not acceptable. I apologize to my team because I let them down. I just gotta keep working and getting better.”
The Tigers got off to an explosive start, pulling to an 11-point lead with 13:31 to play in the first half.
The Longhorns whittled away at the Tiger lead the rest of the half and pulled to within four at the break, a margin Pingeton was disappointed with.
“We could have been up by 15, and we didn’t take advantages of the opportunities we had,” Pingeton said.
Texas came out with vengeance in the second half. A 14-6 run in the first four minutes forced Missouri to call a timeout.
“Those first four minutes they played with a lot of energy and we weren’t where we needed to be mentally or physically,” Pingeton said.
Freshman Kyley Simmons took full responsibility for the team’s lackluster start to the second half, blaming herself as a leader of the team.
Missouri never rebounded from Texas’ surge to start the half. The Longhorns continued to expand their lead with red-hot shooting, firing 57.1 percent from the floor and 50 percent from three-point land in the second half.
The Texas lead would grow to 19 with 2:11 to play before Missouri was able to cut into it slightly to produce the final margin.
The Tigers will travel Saturday to Stillwater, Okla., and take on Oklahoma State. The game will conclude the regular season.