The frustration following Missouri women’s basketball 66-64 loss against LSU Monday night felt palpable.
Sophomore Aijha Blackwell walked back out of the tunnel at Mizzou Arena not even 10 minutes following her team’s loss and went right into a shooting routine at the far basket. As Missouri coach Robin Pingeton arrived at the podium, reporters could look up from their computers and witness Blackwell getting shots up in real time.
Guards Lauren Hansen and Hayley Frank struggled to come up with any answer as to why the Tigers struggled so badly right from tipoff. After nearly erasing a double-digit fourth-quarter deficit, there were plenty of comments about what should have happened earlier.
On Wednesday, Pingeton fired off a short tweet that may have gone overlooked during a week in which the school’s football program hired a new defensive coordinator, and the men’s basketball program beat No. 6-ranked Tennessee in Knoxville.
Powerful day with our team!
— Robin Pingeton (@CoachPingeton) January 21, 2021
Throughout Sunday afternoon’s postgame press conference, Pingeton kept returning to the team’s growth and acknowledged that Wednesday’s practice played a big role in that.
Pingeton said that raw conversations and expressed vulnerability helped as the team “peeled off some layers” on Wednesday.
“I thought we really took a step forward,” Pingeton said. “When we took that court today, we battled for each other.”
When asked about that practice after the game, Blackwell agreed.
“I think that was very big for our team,” Blackwell said. “Just talking with one another and actually getting to know one another more than we already do. That obviously implicates on the court, which helped with our chemistry.”
Players carried the positive momentum from those practices into Sunday afternoon’s matchup against No. 8-ranked Texas A&M. In the opening quarter, the Tigers looked like a completely different team than the one that appeared to be disinterested early on against LSU.
Missouri came out ready to play against the Aggies and built a first-quarter lead through some good shooting and buckets in transition.
But despite some positive play early on, Missouri faced a similar outcome as it did against LSU. The game came down to the final minutes, and once again the Tigers just couldn’t make up a fourth-quarter deficit.
“We know it’s going to be a battle every night, but I still think we’re growing,” Pingeton said. “I’m seeing improvements. It’s hard, it’s really hard, but I’m proud of them.”
Despite a similar scoreline, Sunday afternoon’s loss felt much different than the one suffered less than a week ago. There were plenty of positive moments, such as shooting 8-for-19 on 3-pointers and scoring 34 points in the paint.
However, too many little things added up down the stretch, and tonight, what killed the Tigers were second-chance points and eventually late-game execution.
“We need to find a way to work through any mess-ups,” Blackwell said. “We’ll find that, and we’ll find a way to work through the last minute of those tough, close games.”
Texas A&M didn’t play its best ball on Sunday, a fact that added to the frustrations of a Missouri team that came up just short. The Aggies shot just 39% on 67 shot attempts against the Tigers. What the visitors did, however, was find points in other ways.
While Missouri scored only two points from the charity stripe, Texas A&M scored 15. It turned 16 Tiger turnovers into 23 points and scored 12 second-chance points off of 16 offensive rebounds.
“You look at what A&M did; they had 23 points off our turnovers, we had nine off theirs,” Pingeton said. “[We need] to create some of those extra possessions and opportunities for ourselves. Whether it be from that or the free throw line, you got to find a way to get some extra points on the board.”
When the Aggies made their comeback and built their lead, they held Missouri scoreless for the first five minutes of the second quarter and went on a 13-0 run.
Down the stretch, the Tigers just couldn’t execute well enough to pull off an upset win, despite having multiple opportunities to do so.
Blackwell missed two free throws when she could have extended Missouri’s lead to four with minutes remaining. Later on, a driving-layup attempt rimmed out. And down 64-66 with the shot clock practically off, the Tigers decided to try and score early, but just couldn’t convert.
Finally, down just two points with seven seconds remaining, Missouri couldn’t run its designed play off of a sideline out of bounds. Instead, the Tigers turned the ball over and never got another opportunity. Over the course of a 40-minute game, those little things add up.
“It’s a tough pill to swallow,” Blackwell said. “We were right there, but I think that gives us some momentum. We got something special in the locker room; we just need to put it all together and finish out games.”
Ultimately, Missouri shouldn’t be expected to beat a top-ranked team such as A&M. There’s a reason that the Tigers came in as underdogs, and they put together a better all-around performance than they did against LSU.
“It really just boosted our confidence,” Williams said. “We know that we were right there, so we have to push a little harder to get the dub.”
But, just as the message was last week, there are no moral victories for this Missouri team. The Tigers took a step in the right direction this week, but they still have to play five top-25 opponents in the next six games.
The Tigers can only hope Sunday’s performance is its floor as it continues to search for a first signature win this season.
“We know what we have to work on,” Blackwell said. “We know what practices are going to look like going forward. We know all of that, so we need to watch film and put it all together.”
_Edited by Jack Soble | jsoble@themaneater.com_
