A resilient second half would become a mere morality boost for the Missouri women’s basketball team Saturday night. The Tigers’ 71-56 road defeat by the hands of the 20th-ranked Iowa State Cyclones dropped the Tigers back below .500 to 10-11 overall and 2-5 in the Big 12 Conference.
Following a home upset over archrival Kansas the previous Wednesday night, Missouri soon found itself to be overmatched by yet another premier Big 12 foe in a road atmosphere. After just a minute and a half of play, Iowa State held an 8-0 lead.
The Cyclones soon after stretched the early advantage to 17-4 and finished out the first half in style, never allowing the margin to get within single digits before taking a 39-19 score to the locker rooms at halftime.
The Tigers made strides in the second half to make the difficult road contest competitive. The trio of senior Shakara Jones (16 points, seven rebounds), senior RaeShara Brown (11 points, nine assists) and junior Christine Flores (12 points) generated an upbeat offense that pulled the score to 67-56 with a minute and 15 seconds remaining. Despite nearly doubling their point total from the first half in the second (37 second-half points to 19 in the first half), the Tigers seemingly ran out of time and opportunity to bring the game back to a single-digit margin.
The Tigers found themselves handicapped from the onset in missing junior forward BreAnna Brock, fresh off a 12-point, eight-rebound performance in the victory over Kansas. The lack of a post presence doomed the Tigers all night as Iowa State won the rebounding battle by a 45-25 advantage.
The loss added to the ongoing theme of struggles away from home for the young Tigers. It was their sixth straight road defeat, bringing the team’s road record to 2-7 on the season. It was also the Tigers’ fifth loss in their last six games.
Expectations were at no point high for Robin Pingeton’s first season of rebuilding with a young Tigers team playing in the heart of one of the most respected women’s basketball conferences in the country. While acknowledging the challenging road made all the more difficult by the progression of the Big 12 schedule, Pingeton targeted this season early on as a year for growth.
Amid the ups and downs of a season fluttering around .500, Pingeton remains confident that the buy-in is at a high level. The Tigers have pulled off a couple of upsets (at No.19 Georgetown on Nov. 26 and home against Kansas last Wednesday) to complement strong efforts given down the stretch of the majority of games.
Although a difficult schedule remains, the Tigers should feel more comfortable playing in front of their home crowd at Mizzou Arena for three of the next four games. For the upcoming week, Missouri will take on Nebraska on Tuesday before hosting Kansas State on Saturday.
