Amid a crazed week of weather interference and uncertainty, the Missouri women’s basketball team came ready to play in Wednesday night’s 76-69 victory over Nebraska at Mizzou Arena.
In front of a record low attendance due to a record snowfall in Columbia, the Tigers (11-11, 3-5 Big 12 Conference) pieced together all the fight and intensity they could muster to gut out their third conference victory of
the season.
“I think coach Pingeton described it best: She called it a ‘glorified pick-up game,’” senior guard RaeShara Brown said. “We talked about it in pregame how we had to create our own intensity. We weren’t expecting anybody to be out. But the little bit of help that we did have from the audience was great.”
That intensity allowed the Tigers to break what was an ebb-and-flow contest for much of the first half into a game of their liking by the time halftime arrived.
The two Big 12 foes traded punches right and left, with the score never separating by three points until the Tigers took a 23-18 lead at the 6:50 mark of the first half. This came right in the middle of a 22-4 Missouri run to end the half, bringing the Tigers’ halftime advantage to a lopsided 39-22.
The first half played completely out of Missouri’s element, as Brown’s three-pointer at the 7:20 mark stood as her only points of the half. The senior guard entered the contest as Missouri’s undisputed leader and top scorer, averaging 17 points per game.
“I think it’s a great thing that we can have versatility and have other scorers,” Brown said. “I fit in where I fit in. And I think that’s why I’ve had success in the past, because I’ve worked on letting the game come to me instead of forcing the issue.”
The other scoring came in the form of a breakout half by sophomore guard Sydney Crafton, who connected on seven out of nine first half shots for 17 of the Tigers’ 39 first-half points.
The second half played out almost completely differently than the first for both teams. With an 18-6 run empowered by six three-point shots, Nebraska pulled back into a 46-40 game. Nebraska forward Jordan Hooper led the way from beyond the arch with a school-record seven three pointers en route to a season high point total of 31, 28 of which came in the second half.
“(Hooper) came out and really hit some tough shots,” Brown said. “With a shooter like that, she started knocking them down and you could see that her confidence just went up and she went into her own little zone.”
Brown settled into her own zone in the second half as well, re-establishing herself as the Tigers’ dominant scorer. With Crafton settling down to just two second half points, Brown took charge with a 22-point half that included the Tigers’ final 12 points. The spurt came shortly after Nebraska grabbed a 60-59 lead with just under five minutes to play.
“(Brown is) one of my favorite players in the league,” Nebraska coach Connie Yori said. “I think she’s highly competitive, and down the stretch she made all of the plays for them.”
For first-year Tigers coach Robin Pingeton, the win was as much as the Tigers could ask for that night.
“We appreciate the fans that came out, and understand the ones that didn’t,” Pingeton said. “But the ones that came out and weathered the storm did a great job for us.
