After a season-opening loss to Western Kentucky on Friday, Missouri women’s basketball was put through some early season adversity.

The Tigers responded with a 66-51 win over Quinnipiac to move to 1-1 on the season.

Leading the way for the Tigers was redshirt senior Jordan Frericks. Frericks had 23 points with 16 rebounds, seven of them offensive.

Missouri came out strong against a Quinnipiac team that made a run to the Sweet Sixteen last March. The Bobcats defeated Marquette and Miami before falling to eventual national champion South Carolina in last year’s NCAA tournament.

A three-pointer by sophomore Jordan Chavis gave the Tigers a 15-5 lead after the opening period. Missouri’s zone defense was also working in full force in the early going. The Tigers held the Bobcats to a 2 of 14 shooting performance in the first quarter.

Quinnipiac then came back with four threes and 20 points in the second period to bring themselves within three at the half.

The Tigers continued their poor outside shooting in the first half. The Tigers were 10 for 27 from the field and 2 of 7 from behind the arc in the first half after shooting 5 for 18 from behind the arc Friday.

In the second half, the Tigers caught fire and were 12 for 24 from the field and 3 for 5 from behind the arc. The second-half spark was in part because of junior Cierra Porter. Porter led the offense in the third quarter, scoring 10 of her 15 points in the period.

A Porter three was the start of an eight-point flurry by the Tiger offense in the last 40 seconds of the third. After Porter’s three, Frericks made a layup and then Chavis hit her second three of the day, putting the Tigers up 51-41.

From there, the Tigers didn’t look back, as Chavis continued to bring energy off the bench in the fourth quarter. Chavis finished with six points on 2 of 3 shooting and added three assists and a rebound in 18 minutes.

Junior Sophie Cunningham struggled to get into a rhythm after her 25-point performance yesterday, scoring 11 points while shooting 3 for 12 from the field. Cunningham did have three rebounds and three assists but also had four turnovers.

Next, the Tigers will head back to Columbia to face Wright State on Nov. 16 at Mizzou Arena.

_Edited by Joe Noser | jnoser@themaneater.com_