Prior to Wednesday night’s game against Oklahoma State, the Missouri women’s basketball team spent its most recent stay at Mizzou Arena in heartbreak after blowing a 12-point lead to fall to Kansas State in overtime.
Wednesday was the same story with a different outcome. This time, the Tigers were the ones leaving the court in jubilation.
In an alternative-universe-sort-of turn of events, the Tigers found themselves on the winning end of a strikingly similar comeback that made up an 11-point deficit with four minutes remaining. Missouri capped off the comeback to defeat Oklahoma State 71-65 on Wednesday to improve to 12-13 overall and 4-7 in the Big 12 Conference.
“The girls really rallied around each other (and) said, ‘Enough is enough and we’re not going to go down. Not tonight and not on our home court,’” first-year Missouri coach Robin Pingeton said. “I thought this was a game they would regret for a long time if they didn’t find a way to finish it out. They really hung in there and I’m proud of them.”
Prior to the dramatic finish, physicality and competitive frustration characterized the play of both sides. Oklahoma State took a 33-30 lead to the locker rooms to close out a first half that featured eight lead changes and never once saw the score separate by more than five points.
By that point, junior guard Christine Flores had already established the game as her opportunity to bounce back with a team-high 12 points. Equipped with finger issues that have plagued her all season, Flores played the part of the battle-wounded veteran in rebounding from a first half ankle roll and a second half collapse to the floor.
“I just put it all on the line,” said Flores, who finished with a game-high 24 points. “I said, ‘This is going to be my game. This is going to be our game. We have worked too hard to let another game slide from us.’”
Oklahoma State emerged from halftime on a mission to bury the young Tigers and until late in the second half, it appeared as if the Cowgirls were well on their way to doing just that. Rough-and-tough defense forced the Tigers to be both frustrated and unproductive in an 18-6 Oklahoma State run that brought forth the Cowgirls’ largest lead of the game at 51-39. That was when senior guard RaeShara Brown took over—again.
“There was a moment when we came together,” Brown said. “We vowed we were not going to lose this game. It just gives you goose bumps. It’s something that really can’t be put into words.”
Alongside Flores’ consistent scoring punch, Brown (20 points, six assists) assumed her role as the team’s go-to player down the stretch of the team’s comeback. After Flores’ three-pointer capped off a 13-2 Missouri run to send the game to overtime, Brown scored seven of the team’s 17 overtime points to complete the victory.
For Missouri, the win was another step on the path to restoring a program fallen on hard times of rebuild.
“This (was) the biggest game of the season so far,” Pingeton said. “It’s a huge win in relation to us trying to lay the foundation for our program and set the standards and the expectations (for) what it takes to be successful.”
