As soon as Robin Pingeton entered the locker room, her players swarmed her with excitement.
The No. 21 Missouri Tigers crowded around their coach to celebrate her 150th win with the program, a 59-36 victory over Southern Illinois-Edwardsville on Monday at Mizzou Arena. After a difficult week that included a scare from Missouri State and a loss to Green Bay, Missouri recovered to put away the Cougars early, never trailing after the first four minutes of the game.
With the schedule set to toughen up later that week when the Tigers (3-1) traveled to Estero, Florida for the Gulf Coast Showcase, Monday’s win represented a chance for Missouri to get back on track before the trip south.
After struggling against Missouri State and Green Bay, senior Sophie Cunningham returned to her usual form against SIUE (2-1), delivering a double double with 14 points and 12 rebounds. During the third quarter, she moved into sixth on the program’s all-time scoring list.
The Tigers, who shot just 30 percent from the field against Green Bay, recovered to shoot 45 percent on Monday. They took advantage of the Cougars’ 27.8 percent shooting to remain undefeated at 5-0 against SIUE in the schools’ all-time series.
As Missouri maintained a double-digit lead throughout the second half, it was able to spread out playing time across the roster. All 13 healthy players on the team saw action, and all but redshirt freshman Haley Troup had at least one point or assist.
Sophomores Kelsey Winfrey and Elle Brown are usually seen orchestrating Missouri’s bench celebrations during games, but after Winfrey teed up Brown for an open 3-pointer late in the fourth quarter, the Missouri sideline erupted in support of two of its least-used players.
If there were any worrisome trends in this game for the Tigers, they might have been in the rebound and turnover battles. Missouri was outrebounded, 35-33, and committed 17 giveaways.
“We still have to improve on our box outs, but I think we did a phenomenal job of being more intentional about our box outs,” junior Amber Smith said in a video release. “We just have to know that we’re going to need to out-rebound some teams in order to get some wins.”
_Edited by Bennett Durando | bdurando@themaneater.com_
