Despite a scoreless stretch that totaled nearly 10 minutes, Missouri women’s basketball battled through its shooting woes to defeat Texas A&M 78-69. 

“[I’m] really proud of our girls,” Missouri head coach Robin Pingeton said. “So much respect for them to continue to believe and lean in when things got tough.”

The Tigers returned to Columbia following their 66-52 victory over Vanderbilt Jan. 20 and relied on their perimeter shooting to win a tightly contested game against the Aggies.

Missouri finished 16-33 from beyond the arc and made 12 free throws to overcome its lack of points in the paint. The Aggies outscored the Tigers 30-18 in that area and shot 51% from the field.

Junior forward Hayley Frank paced the Tiger offense with a career-night. Frank finished with 28 points and hit a career-high seven 3-pointers on 7-14 shooting from beyond the arc. She grabbed eight rebounds and went 5-6 from the free throw line.

“I tried to stay confident even though it wasn’t falling at first,” Frank said.

Junior guard Aijha Blackwell earned her nation-best 15th double-double of the season with 10 points and 15 rebounds, but her passion and intensity carried Missouri late.

“We need [Aijha’s] passion,” Pingeton said. “We need her grittiness, we need her toughness, we need the energy. I think we all appreciate her passion.”

Junior guard Lauren Hansen and redshirt senior guard Haley Troup scored 14 and 11 points respectively to give Missouri four double-digit scorers. 

Sophomore guard Mama Dembele led Missouri defensively with two steals and grabbed four rebounds. Dembele used vision and quickness to find open players, finishing with seven assists while committing zero turnovers. 

“Mama had a huge game for us,” Pingeton said. “Seven assists — really did a good job at attacking and transferring that advantage for us.”

Texas A&M featured four double-digit scorers as well. Graduate guard Kayla Wells scored a team-high 14 points, junior center Sydnee Roby and graduate guard Destiny Pitts finished with 13 points apiece. Graduate guard Qadashah Hoppie added 11 points for the Aggies. 

The Aggies committed 14 turnovers, resulting in 14 Missouri points. However, 10 of those points occurred in the second half to seal the game for the Tigers. Texas A&M scored 16 points off  12 Missouri turnovers but could not overcome the Tigers’ 3-point barrage. 

“We executed a couple plays very well,” Texas A&M head coach Gary Blair said. “But plays run  out if you cannot defend on the other end.”

Hansen set the tone with a 3-pointer on Missouri’s first possession. After a missed 3-pointer by Texas A&M junior guard Jordan Nixon, Frank knocked down her first 3-pointer of the game to give the Tigers a 6-2 lead.

Blackwell and freshman forward Kiya Dorroh drained 3-pointers in the following minutes to push Missouri’s lead to 14-7 at the 6:11 mark of the first quarter. Texas A&M responded with 4 points in the paint and Hoppie knocked down a 3-pointer to tie the game at 14-14. 

After a missed jump shot by Missouri redshirt senior forward LaDazhia Williams, Blackwell grabbed the offensive rebound and hit the second-chance layup with 2:43 remaining in the first quarter. 

Over the next 9:48, the Aggies held the Tigers scoreless and went on a 13-0 run to take a 27-16 lead.  Missouri missed 12 consecutive field goals before Frank drained a 3-pointer with 2:43 left in the second quarter. 

Frank’s basket gave the Tigers momentum, which they used on an 11-4 stretch to enter halftime with a 31-29 deficit. 

“I was proud of the first half — how we got down and were able to respond,” Frank said. 

Missouri found its groove from beyond the arc again in the third quarter, finishing the period 5-7 on 3-point attempts. Troup began the barrage with a 3-pointer on the Tigers’ first possession of the half.

“I thought in the second half we did a much better job moving without the ball,” Pingeton said. “That’s a big part of our motion.”

After trading baskets for over two minutes, Hansen and Frank drained 3-pointers on consecutive Missouri possessions to give the Tigers a 42-40 lead with 6:32 left in the third quarter. The Aggies responded with a 6-3 run to retake a 1-point lead.

Dembele and Frank followed the Aggies’ run with 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions to give Missouri a 51-48 lead. After a free throw basket by Roby tied the game at 52, Dembele drove into the lane for a layup. 

Blackwell intercepted a pass from Nixon on the ensuing possession and beat the buzzer with a layup to give Missouri a 57-53 lead entering the fourth quarter. The layup marked Blackwell’s 10th point of the night, giving her a double-double for the ninth straight game. 

Texas A&M recaptured a 60-59 advantage with a 7-2 run to begin the fourth quarter, but the Tigers pulled away with a barrage of 3-pointers. Frank gave Missouri the lead with her sixth 3-pointer of the game. Hansen followed with a 3-pointer after a Dembele steal and Troup capped off the 9-0 run with her second 3-pointer of the contest. 

“When we went on the run to stretch it out in the fourth, [the crowd] was just roaring,” Frank said. “It feeds you to get a stop and then get another one on the offensive end.”

With 3:29 remaining in the second half, a layup from Aggies junior guard McKinzie Green brought Texas A&M within 6 points, but 3-pointers by Frank and Hansen on back-to-back Tiger possessions sealed the victory. 

“It was hard when we were trading threes for twos,” Pitts said. “That was the difference between the first half and the second half. In the first half, we were able to get those stops.”

Missouri improved to 15-5 overall and 4-3 in SEC play. The Tigers earned praise from the opposing coach as well:

“The best thing Missouri does is they know how to play the game of basketball,” Blair said. 

The Tigers continue their conference slate on Thursday against Mississippi State at 5:30 p.m. 
Edited by Riley Gearhart | rgearhart@themaneater.com