Missouri’s women’s basketball has never won in Lexington, Ky.
The Tigers would go as far as to take the lead in the fourth quarter in Sunday afternoon’s game, but this wouldn’t be the game that ended the Tigers’ winless streak at Memorial Coliseum. Missouri dropped its sixth game of the season against No. 15 Kentucky, 61-55.
“We’ll go back and watch film with them and it is a 40 minute game for sure, but when it’s winning time you got to make winning plays,” coach Robin Pingeton said. “We had our chances, we just didn’t convert.”
After barely scraping together a win on Thursday over Florida, Missouri showed why it has room for improvement before it began a schedule that featured matchups with seven ranked opponents in just nine games.
Missouri’s offense played a tale of two halves on Sunday.
During the first half, Missouri’s offense couldn’t find the basket or string together any consistent points. It lacked the offensive presence that it needed to pull an upset.
Missouri’s first-half performance disappointed Pingeton, who said that the team became frustrated and allowed its frustrations to carry over from possession to possession.
“I obviously was not happy, or pleased with the first half,” Pingeton said. “It was just a really ugly half of basketball.”
Prior to Sunday’s game, the Tigers were third in the NCAA with a 50.32 field goal percentage. In the first half, Missouri shot at a mere 28.6%.
The Tigers did not find any success from deep and ended the afternoon going 1-18 on three-point shots.
Their rough first half was in part due to their quick possessions. Oftentimes, Missouri passed the ball a couple of times and then missed the three-point shot and the rebound.
“We do talk a lot about understanding possessions,” Pingeton said. “If we come down and shoot a three, three possessions in a row, let’s really be mindful of trying to get something going inside. Either with a post feed or a dribble drive, and just get some confidence, get some flow back. I don’t think we did that very well in the first half.”
The third quarter was the only true exception for Missouri’s shooting woes. Pingeton’s team shot 66.7% and battled back after being down by 10 at halftime.
“It was just a really tough shooting night for us, other than that third quarter,” Pingeton said. “But we just had a hard time and so we really pounded that ball inside. I thought LaDazhia Williams was doing a great job for us, again.”
Williams led the Tigers with 23 points. She finished 10-13 on field goals and was the most consistent offensive answer for Missouri on Sunday afternoon. Her performance solidified Missouri’s second-half comeback.
The combination between Williams and guard Aijha Blackwell carried Missouri’s offense. Blackwell secured a career-best 19 rebounds on Sunday, while Williams had the second most with just six rebounds.
Blackwell showed how competitive of a player she was by her approach in the paint. She often drove in and secured rebounds on both sides of the court.
Blackwell’s success impressed Pingeton, but the Tigers need to find more players who want the ball as much as Blackwell on the court. She commands so much power and strength and needs more people willing to do what they can to secure the rebound or force a turnover.
“She’s got a knack for the ball,” Pinegton said of Blackwell. “She can go get rebounds, she’s strong and she’s physical. She’s athletic and has a great nose for the ball.”
Missouri will have to rekindle its earlier shooting success and cut down on its turnovers if the Tigers want to gain any traction heading into a tough final schedule.
“We’ve just got to be willing to do the little things,” Pingeton said. “The attention to detail will put us over the top. We’ve got to stay the course, we’ve got to trust the process and if you look at the schedule there’s going to be a lot more opportunities for us so we’re a long way from being out of the race, that’s for sure.”
Missouri will face No. 19 Arkansas on Thursday at Mizzou Arena at 7 p.m. CT.
_Edited by Kyle Pinnell | kpinnell@themaneater.com_
