On the Missouri women’s basketball bench Tuesday, it was hard to find a player without some sort of brace or cast.
Junior forward Michelle Hudyn has a stress fracture in her tibia. Junior guard Morgan Stock jammed three of her fingers before the game.
Both senior guard Morgan Eye and sophomore guard Juanita Robinson have knee braces on from preseason injuries.
Junior guard Lianna Doty, a player who would’ve been the starting point guard but is instead out for the season with a Lisfranc injury, has the set of crutches and a boot.
Sophomore guard Lindsey Cunningham is seeing the doctor about a possible meniscus tear she felt just a few minutes into the first half.
“With Lianna Doty out with her injury, we know it’s going to be different and there will be growing pains,” Missouri coach Robin Pingeton said. “But we can’t do anything about it. We have to continue to guide and mentor and develop. Certainly going into the season, we didn’t expect a junior college kid to take control of the point guard position.”
The Tigers came out on top against Division II Missouri Western, with a narrow 78-75 exhibition victory, despite Missouri’s 41-24 lead at half.
Mizzou used the players it had.
Sophomore forward Jordan Frericks had 10 rebounds and sophomore guard Sierra Michaelis had 11 rebounds and 16 points.
Freshman forward Bri Porter scored 16 points in her 11 minutes on the court. Twelve of those points were in a 19-4 streak to end the first half.
“We were just running our offense, and I felt comfortable with where everyone would be,” Porter said. “I just came in with the flow of our offense. Coach has helped me understand my kind of read and what I need to do to the defense to get what I need.”
Still, no one on the court came close to Griffons guard LaQuinta Jefferson, who put up 40 points against the Tigers, including a 3-pointer in the last seconds of the game to nearly close the gap.
Jefferson had plenty of offensive opportunities. Mizzou turned the ball over 23 times.
Robinson said the Tigers failed to adjust back to defense after turning the ball over.
“The hesitation of our defense when we were adjusting made it hard to guard (Jefferson),” Robinson said. “We just weren’t quick enough.”
After a three-point win in an exhibition game and with several players injured, Pingeton is calling for toughness before their first regular season game against Western Illinois this Saturday at 2 p.m.
“We’re not going to candy coat anything,” Pingeton said. “We’re going to have to find a way to do it by committee. There were definitely some positives, but we have a lot of work to do. We can’t take a day off.”
