From the start of the game Sunday night, it was clear Missouri was off.
The full-court press put on by the Kentucky women’s basketball team (16-4, 5-2 Southeastern Conference) was forcing Mizzou (11-9, 1-6 SEC) to take chances. These chances resulted in the Tigers giving up possession early on through steals and intercepted passes.
When they lost possession, they lost control. And Mizzou couldn’t control the Wildcats in an 83-69 loss in Columbia.
A key player off her game tonight was sophomore forward Jordan Frericks, who has led the Tigers in past games with points scored. She couldn’t muscle her way through the paint to drain more than one basket in the first half.
Frericks ended up putting in work late in second half, scoring seven more free throws and grabbing some rebounds from Kentucky’s tallest players.
As a whole, none of the Tigers had any luck scoring from inside the three-point line, with a team average of 32.7 percent.
But from outside the line, it was a different story.
The game led off with a three drained by sophomore guard Lindsey Cunningham, and the threes were raining down from there. Senior guard Morgan Eye and sophomore guard Sierra Michaelis both made three 3-pointers, and junior guard Maddie Stock finished on top with four.
“I think it was a lot of my teammates just handling the ball, and handling the pressure,” Stock said. “Since Kentucky plays such tough pressure, it was easy for my teammates to find me. I was open, so I would shoot it.”
But the 3-pointers were all Mizzou had on Kentucky. The Wildcats scored 20 in the paint, while Mizzou had eight.
Kentucky scored 23 points off the 22 turnovers Mizzou allowed, while Mizzou scored six off the 11 turnovers Kentucky allowed.
Kentucky scored 12 points off fast breaks; Mizzou scored five.
Even with Stock’s 14 points from the bench, Kentucky’s bench still outscored Mizzou’s 32 to 21.
But despite the numbers, Mizzou consistently fought back for the lead, causing the lead to go back and forth until later in the second half when Kentucky pulled out a 9-0 run around the 13:30 mark to permanently control the lead.
“I thought we played with a lot of toughness tonight, thought we really competed hard for 40 minutes,” Mizzou coach Robin Pingeton said. “Our execution at times wasn’t where it needed to be, our poise wasn’t where it needed to be, but I thought our players really competed hard.”
The Wildcats also shot exceptionally well from the free-throw line, scoring 17 out of an attempted 23.
“We got a couple fouls that you know were times we didn’t need to foul,” Pingeton said. “I think we thought we were getting our hands on a loose ball or tying it up, but they got to the free throw line and knocked down their free throws.”
The Tigers will go up against Florida for the second time this season on Jan. 29; tipoff is at 6 p.m.