Welcome back, Tigers.

The last time the Missouri women’s basketball team took the court ended with a 64-75 loss against Georgia on March 5 in the first round of the Southeastern Conference tournament.

But over two weeks later, the Tigers (17-13) will face off against Northern Iowa (17-14) in the first round of the Women’s National Invitational Tournament at 7 p.m. March 19 in UNI’s home court of Cedar Falls, Iowa.

Missouri coach Robin Pingeton said that the team needs to look at its game against UNI as the championship game.

“(This game) has to have that kind of mentality, that kind of focus, that kind of effort,” Pingeton said. “You take what happens from there and hopefully you have a chance to survive and play another game. I like to think we’ll compete and try to bring home a WNIT championship to the University of Missouri, but that doesn’t happen if you get too far ahead of yourself. Tournament time, March Madness, anything can happen.”

While Mizzou and Northern Iowa have not played each other this season, with Mizzou being in the SEC and Northern Iowa in the Missouri Valley Conference, Mizzou has beaten Northern Iowa in all five of the teams’ previous meetings.

If Mizzou wins this game, it will be its first postseason win since the 2003 WNIT.

The Panthers, like Mizzou, have made a name for themselves by being a huge threat at the three-point line. While the Tigers have guards like senior Morgan Eye, junior twins Maddie and Morgan Stock and sophomore Sierra Michaelis draining treys nearly every game, Pingeton said that UNI shot over 160 more 3-pointers this season than Mizzou.

“There’s not a lot of teams that shoot the three ball more than we do, but UNI definitely does,” said Pingeton, who spent three seasons as an assistant coach at the Panthers’ in-state rival, Iowa State. “UNI is certainly a different type of team than we’ve faced in the SEC in regards to their ability to shoot the three-ball. It’s going to be a completely different game plan than what we’ve been used to the past couple months.”

Pingeton said she plans on heavily guarding the three-point line, a total defensive switch from the inside-out guarding Missouri did for most of its previous SEC games.

For a majority of the Tigers’ two weeks of practice since their Georgia game, Mizzou didn’t know who its opponent was going to be. Nevertheless, Pingeton said the practices have been the best all season.

“It’s hard when you don’t know when your next game is or who your opponent is going to be, to muster up that focus and intensity at practice,” Pingeton said. “But our girls did it right out of the gates when we got back. I think that’s a sign of great maturity.”

Having been on a roll towards the end of the regular season, the team had a difficult time losing its first conference tournament game and leaving them out so quickly.

“After conference, it was such a disappointing loss because our expectations were so high and we had been playing so well,” Pingeton added. “That one hurt, and it needed to, but I was really proud of the way our girls were able to get back on the horse and get after it the next day.”

These past two weeks of training have been the longest stretch of practices uninterrupted by games since preseason play, and Pingeton said the team are looking forward to the opportunity to get back out there and play again.

This tournament marks the end to an injury-filled season for the Tigers, with junior guard Lianna Doty, junior forward Kayla McDowell and freshman forward Bri Porter all having suffered season-ending injuries before conference play. Junior forward Michelle Hudyn and freshman guard Carrie Shephard also had injuries earlier in the season but have since healed.

While Pingeton is focused on the immediate future rather than reminiscing on the season, she thinks her players will be proud of their work this season when it’s all said and done.

“When the final horn sounds and you have a chance to step back and evaluate what exactly these girls were able to do, I think they’re going to find a lot of things to be very, very proud of,” Pingeton said. “They certainly won’t be satisfied; we want more, we’re all hungry and our expectations are high, but I think in the big picture they’ll be proud of what they’ve been able to overcome and the way they did it.”

The Tigers and Panthers face off this Thursday at 7 p.m. in the first round of the WNIT. The winner will play either Kansas State (18-13) or Akron (22-8) in the second round, which will be played Saturday through March 24.